The Death of Disposables
Multiple outlets are reporting that the Government is set to complete the shift predicted by Planet of the Vapes and ban disposable vapes from the market
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by Dave Cross
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“The risk of unintended consequences is too great for us to support a ban” – ASH UK
In July, the Local Government Association became the latest in a long line of voices calling for an immediate ban to the sale of disposable ecigs.
Action on Smoking and Health (ASH UK) responded with the statement: “ASH is sympathetic to calls by the LGA and others to ban single-use disposable e-cigarettes, but the risk of unintended consequences is too great for us to support a ban.
“Children already find it easy to get hold of illegal vapes, as those selling them have no qualms selling to children, making them all illegal won’t help. The sale of illegal disposable vapes, already large and growing, will be turbo-charged if they are banned.
“Illegal vapes go under the regulatory radar, they’ve been found to contain all sorts of toxic chemicals banned in legal products, and there’s no way to ensure they’re properly recycled. That’s why ASH supports putting an excise tax on disposable vapes, which could make them much less affordable, while giving much greater powers to Border Force, HMRC and trading standards to control their import, distribution and sale, and to force vape companies to ensure they are properly recycled.”
ASH’s position is reasoned and evidenced-based, but it looks as though logic has not won the day.
Emotive calls echoing Bloomberg bullet points have come to dominate public discourse and misinformation floods from every news outlet, twisting the national conscience into one of opposition.
A typical media article cites ‘fancy-sounding fruity flavours’ as a threat – as if the word ‘Strawberry’ could bring about the collapse of Western civilisation as we know it.
The Telegraph appears to be the source for the current rumour, coming from its sources within the Department of Health. It says: “The Telegraph can reveal that health ministers are preparing to act, having decided that single-use vapes are overwhelmingly targeted at those aged under 18…The decision will be revealed in a consultation issued by the Health Department shortly. It has been pencilled in for next week, though timings could yet slip.”
The newspaper article goes on to quote a “senior Whitehall insider” telling it: “Disposable vapes are almost entirely aimed at kids and they are environmentally damaging. There is a wide consensus emerging on the need to act.”
Populism triumphs over evidence and common sense once more.
While there is no indication that bans could be broadened out to encompass bottles of e-liquid and more advanced vape kits, only a fool would expect the Bloomberg-funded legions to put their feet up and relax. The industry can't afford to remain complacent.
One thing is for sure, we are witnessing the death of the disposable.
Photo Credit:
Photo by Sacre Bleu on Unsplash, cropped and resized
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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