Industry Supports Bans
Elfbar announces plan to drop flavours from its products as it and British American Tobacco call for stricter regulations for the vape sector
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by Dave Cross
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Imiracle (HK) Ltd, the company that trades as Elfbar, clearly finds itself in the UK government’s sights as the administration is set to consider a complete ban on the import and sale of all disposable vapes. The government’s consultation process is to close on Wednesday 6 December.
With the Elfbar and Lost Mary constituting over 50% of all single-use UK sales the loss would be huge.
Mirroring Juul dropping all of its popular flavours in the United States, Bubble Gum, Cotton Candy, and Rainbow Candy flavoured Elfbars have already been consigned to the disposable vape bin of history. Gummy Bear is now sold under the name of Gummy, but it too is going to be chopped from the line-up.
The company says that products already in the supply chain will continue to be seen on shelves and in online stores, but the product line deletions will be evident as they filter through the system.
A spokesperson for the company told ITV: “This is a continuation of our efforts to limit their appeal to children, while being mindful that flavours play a critical role for adult smokers and ex-smokers on their journey to quit smoking.”
Imiracle (HK) Ltd also called for the government to impose tighter restrictions on vape companies including introducing licences for retailers in order to sell vapes and a ban on open displays in-store.
“The introduction of such a regime would mitigate children's access to vapes and make it easier for the authorities to better regulate the sale of vaping devices. Furthermore, we believe it would help combat the growing illicit vape market and drive increased rates of vape recycling,” the company continue on ITV News.
Oddly, it’s not so keen on the suggestion that a tax should be applied to vape products to increase their retail price, saying that such a move would just promote the black market to smokers.
Hazel Cheeseman, Action on Smoking and Health, said: “It is no surprise that Elf Bar have failed to strike this balance in their recommendations with a series of half measures that will fail to adequately protect children.”
British American Tobacco, which owns Vuse, has also called for tougher regulation of the industry. A spokesperson said: “As the largest manufacturer of vaping products in the UK, we are clear on our responsibilities and are urging the government to introduce more stringent vaping regulations. We believe that underage users should never vape, so we want confectionery, dessert and soft drink flavours to be banned and the introduction of a new regime for how and where vapes are sold.”
Action on Smoking and Health’s Deborah Arnott said: “For BAT to claim to be spearheading a campaign to make industry more responsible is breathtakingly cynical. BAT makes the vast majority of its profits from selling cigarettes, which kill consumers when used as intended.”
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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