Parliament
Alexander Stafford, Conservative MP for Rother Valley, has posed a series of questions to the government about vaping and electronic cigarettes
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by Dave Cross
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Alexander Stafford MP asked last week’s Secretary of State for Health and Social Care if an assessment of the implications for the policies of the paper by Action and Smoking and Health entitled Use of e-cigarettes among young people in Great Britain 2022 will be carried out. He also wanted to know if the Secretary of State would take any steps in the department to help prevent the underage use of e-cigarettes.
Maggie Throup MP has managed to weather the frequent, recent turmoil in government departments and hold on to her position as Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Health and Social Care. She told Alexander Stafford: “The Government supports the use of vapes or e-cigarettes solely as a tool for adult smokers trying to quit smoking. We strongly discourage the use among children and young people.
“Regulations in the United Kingdom aim to prevent the uptake of vaping by children and young people. These include restrictions on mainstream TV and radio advertising; requirements on the messaging on packaging and labelling; sales bans to under 18 year olds; and limits on tank sizes and nicotine content. We are currently exploring additional measures to protect children and young people from starting vaping and we will set out further action in due course.”
The Rother Valley Tory then asked the Department for Health and Social Care what steps the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency is taking to assess the environmental sustainability of disposable e-cigarettes when reviewing product notifications. In addition, he requested the Secretary of State explain whether the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency conducts physical tests on product samples when it scrutinises notified e-cigarette products.
Maggie Throup responded: “The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) do not assess the environmental sustainability of vapes or e-cigarettes when reviewing product notifications. However, producers of vapes placing more than five tonnes of such equipment on the United Kingdom market each year are obliged to register with the waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) producer compliance scheme.
“If producers do not register with this scheme, the Environment Agency can take enforcement action. We are working with the Environment Agency to remind vape suppliers of the regulations related to the WEEE scheme and encourage registration.
“While the MHRA is responsible for assessing data submitted by suppliers through the notification of products, this does not include testing products. Prior to submitting a notification, data must meet the minimum mandatory requirements, including declarations requiring the producer to take full responsibility for the product. Once these automated mandatory checks have been confirmed, the submission can be assessed by the MHRA for compliance with the regulations.”
Finally, Alexander Stafford enquired about what recent assessment has been made of the adequacy of Trading Standards resources for (a) the enforcement of age of sale restrictions on e-cigarettes and (b) illicit product checks on e-cigarette retailers.
Maggie Throup replied that no recent assessment has been made. Given the turmoil in the government, it is unlikely that one will be instigated any time soon.
Dave Cross
Journalist at POTVDave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous start-ups to develop content for their websites.
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