The Fed and IBVTA Reactions
The Federation of Independent Retailers and the Independent British Vape Trade Association have been providing reaction to the Government’s ban plan
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by Dave Cross
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“Banning disposable vapes in the UK will not help people give up smoking and vaping but will fuel the illicit market, independent retailers have warned,” says the Fed.
Muntazir Dipoti, the National President of the Fed, said: “While we agree that action is needed to prevent children and young people being attracted to vaping, we do not believe that banning disposable vapes is the way to go about it.”
The ban on single use vapes was announced Monday by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak as the government responded to the consultation it launched looking at vaping and cigarettes, Creating a smokefree generation and tackling youth vaping.
Mr Dipoti warned: “An outright ban will simply send youngsters towards unorthodox and illicit sources where there is no compliance to tobacco and vaping laws, while the products they peddle are likely to contain dangerous and illegal levels of toxic chemicals.
“Disposable vapes are usually more affordable and, as such, are a bigger incentive for adult smokers to change to vapes.”
To clamp down on young people vaping, the government needed to make more financial resources available for educational campaigns, while more enforcement activity was required, especially at borders to prevent counterfeit products entering the market, Mr Dipoti continued.
Meanwhile, the introduction of a disposal scheme – similar to the deposit return scheme being planned for single use drinks containers – would better address the government’s concerns on the environmental impact that these products have.
Mr Dipoti explained: “Vape retailers are responsible and offer a recycling option, but the government should be looking at making available more ways to safely recycle disposable vapes.”
Marcus Saxton, IBVTA Chair and Chief Executive of the Totally Wicked Group told BBC Breakfast: “The real concern here is that, yes, how do we ensure that the safety of these products only goes into the hands of adult smokers – but the concern around a ban, if that border enforcement or local Trading Standards money doesn’t get to the right place, is that this could really revert many smokers back to that killer which is combustible cigarettes.”
Later, to ITV News at 1, he said: “Flavours play a critical role in helping smokers move away from tobacco and stay off tobacco flavour and combustible products. So, they mustn’t throw the baby out with the bathwater here. We’ve got to focus on the issue of disposable vapes in the hands of youths – but ensure that vaping the materially safer alternative to smoking is available through reputable retailers.”
Meanwhile, Marcus informed The Sun newspaper that the ban on disposable vapes will simply serve to make it harder for smokers to quit.
He told them: “Big tobacco will be rubbing its hands with glee in anticipation of possible vape bans and increasing their sales.”
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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