{"id":20430,"date":"2025-02-03T15:39:09","date_gmt":"2025-02-03T15:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/?p=20430"},"modified":"2025-02-03T16:01:11","modified_gmt":"2025-02-03T16:01:11","slug":"banning-disposables-wont-stop-youth-vaping-experts-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/post\/banning-disposables-wont-stop-youth-vaping-experts-say\/","title":{"rendered":"Banning disposables won\u2019t stop youth vaping, say experts from UCL and KCL"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The UK will soon join a growing list of countries to ban disposable vapes in a bid to curb youth vaping.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But while the intentions might be good, the move will NOT stop young people vaping and is likely to have \u201cunintended consequences\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s the view of a team of addiction and behavioural science experts in a new analysis<\/a> published in the journal Addiction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The researchers, from University College London and King\u2019s College London, say the ban may help to protect the environment but is unlikely to significantly reduce youth vaping. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Young people will switch to other devices<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

They argue that young people are already switching to similar rechargeable versions of vapes and a ban on disposables may push many adult vapers back to smoking. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cCheap, rechargeable analogue [alternatives] to popular disposable vapes are already widely available in England,\u201d the article says. \u201cA ban may protect the environment but, alone, is unlikely to substantially reduce youth vaping and may have unintended consequences. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA wider package of carefully-designed measures is required to balance the need to reduce youth vaping while ensuring vapes are available for smoking cessation or reduction.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The researchers say disposable vapes have been particularly attractive to young people because of their \u201ccheap prices, brightly coloured packaging, and widespread marketing and availability in high street shops.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adults also rely on vapes to stop smoking<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But while action to reduce youth vaping is urgently needed, they say vapes are also \u201cwidely and effectively used\u201d by adults to help them stop smoking \u201cuniquely lethal\u201d cigarettes and \u201ctherefore, regulation must be balanced.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The disposable vape ban will take effect on June 1 across the UK under environmental legislation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Separately to this, a new Tobacco and Vapes Bill<\/a> is currently being scrutinised in Parliament. However, the researchers say many of the policies it contains are \u201cvague.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

They say: \u201cAlthough the disposable vape ban is well-intentioned and might potentially be positive from an environmental perspective, it is unlikely to substantially reduce youth vaping.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Another obstacle to the effectiveness of the disposables ban they cite is that \u201cmanufacturers have created reusable \u2018disposable-like\u2019 analogues to their most popular disposable vape devices, and it is possible that people will dispose of these once the e-liquid or battery runs out.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They say: \u201cLike disposables, these new designs are cheap, easy to operate, widely available and advertised at the point-of-sale and use the same high-strength nicotine-salts-based vape liquid. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese factors all increase appeal to youth. Therefore, without additional regulation, young people who would have otherwise used disposable vapes are likely to simply switch to using their reusable, \u2018disposable-like\u2019 analogues.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The researchers say \u201ca package of evidence-based policies\u201d is urgently needed to effectively curb youth vaping. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These would include restricting packaging and marketing, banning advertisements at the point-of-sale, better enforcement of age-of-sale laws and taxation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPolicy following these frameworks could greatly reduce the appeal of vaping to youth while keeping it accessible to adults who smoke,\u201d they say. \u201cThe newly announced Tobacco and Vapes Bill would be well placed to introduce these.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dangerous \u2018unintended consequences\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

They also warn of dangerous unintended consequences of the new law, which should also be considered in any further policies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFirst, it is important to consider what people who use disposable vapes will do after the ban,\u201d they say. \u201cThe ban would affect one in 20 adults in Great Britain (around 2.6 million people) and have a disproportionate impact on disadvantaged groups that have higher rates of smoking and typically find it harder to quit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cDisposable vapes also have an advantage over other models because of their ease of use, which might make them more appealing to people who smoke and have disabilities or mental health conditions. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCommitments are needed to these communities to ensure that affordable and accessible smoking cessation support, including vapes, remain available.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They also say that banning disposable vapes while cigarettes remain widely available could send the wrong message that vaping is more harmful than smoking. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They add: \u201cSuch inaccurate perceptions could deter adults who smoke from switching to a less harmful product or lead people who vape to return to smoking.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The UK will soon join a growing list of countries to ban disposable vapes in a bid to curb youth vaping.\u00a0 But while the intentions might be good, the move will NOT stop young people vaping and is likely to have \u201cunintended…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":990002,"featured_media":20431,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[259,257],"tags":[27,186],"slider":[],"class_list":["post-20430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science","category-news","tag-article","tag-nicotine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/990002"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20430"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20430\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20441,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20430\/revisions\/20441"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20430"},{"taxonomy":"slider","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/slider?post=20430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}