Spain plans to ban disposable vapes and flavours “within weeks” as part of a major overhaul of its smoking and vaping laws.
The tough new measures are part of an ‘Anti-Tobacco Plan,’ which the government says aims to limit products that cause a risk to young people’s health and are a ‘gateway’ to smoking.
Cigarettes and other tobacco products will also be subject to tighter rules, including higher taxes and mandatory plain packaging.
The Anti-Tobacco Plan also contains measures to expand the number of places where smoking is banned and put vapers on the same footing as conventional smokers.
There is also a recommendation that smoking should not be allowed in vehicles carrying children or pregnant women. However, the government has acknowledged that similar proposals have been met with huge opposition in the past, and that an all-out ban would be difficult to enforce.
The Spanish government also recently shared plans to regulate the use of cannabis for medicinal purposes, with a draft regulation soon to be published.
Concern of black market boom
There is concern among anti-smoking campaigners and vape advocates that the latest rules will lead to a surge in unregulated black market products. Earlier this month, illegal vapes worth €1.55 million on the black market were seized by police in Seville - one of the largest seizures of illegal vapes ever seen in Spain.
In Spain, more than a half a million people vape, according to Knowledge-Action-Change’s recent Global State of Harm Reduction report. This equates to around 1.3 percent of the adult population, which is only about a quarter of France’s vaping rate.
Spain’s high smoking rate
However, Spain’s smoking rate is fairly high, at almost 28 percent of the adult population - more than 11 million people. More than 57,000 people in Spain die from smoking-related disease annually.
Meanwhile, countries such as Sweden and New Zealand, which encourage the use of vapes as an alternative to cigarettes have seen smoking rates plummet, along with tobacco-related health issues. Both countries are now on the verge of being declared ‘smoke-free’ (where the smoking rate is less than five per cent).
Vaping advocates argue that the new rules in Spain - particularly the ban on flavours - will cost lives as smokers will find it harder to quit the more dangerous habit.
Recent research shows that flavoured vaping products are far more effective as a switching tool for smokers than those that are traditional tobacco flavoured. Most adult vapers who have stopped smoking successfully say they prefer non-tobacco flavours.
