The UK has announced plans to outlaw kids’ e-cigarettes with sweet flavors and to outlaw disposable vapes
To stop kids from being hooked on nicotine, the British government has announced that it will restrict the variety of flavors available on disposable vaporizers and outlaw their sale. It also intends to adhere to a controversial idea that would forbid today’s youth from ever purchasing cigarettes.
On Monday, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is expected to reveal the plan’s specifics.
Although it is presently against the law in the UK to offer tobacco or vapes to minors under the age of 18, authorities claim that teenage vaping has increased over the last three years and that inexpensive, disposable, colorful vapes are a “key driver.”
The government claims it would “restrict flavours which are specifically marketed at children” in addition to outlawing disposable vapes. It will also make sure that vape makers package their products in “less visually appealing packaging.”
“We need to take action before it spreads like wildfire, as any parent or educator knows is one of the most concerning trends right now,” Sunak said.
“While vaping can be a helpful tool to help smokers quit, marketing vapes to children is not acceptable because the long-term effects of vaping are unknown and the nicotine within them can be highly addictive.” The administration of Sunak also said that it would proceed with the plan it unveiled last year to progressively increase the legal smoking age, making it impossible for anybody born after January 1, 2009, to ever get cigarettes.
Health professionals have embraced the proposal, but some Conservative Party members find it outrageous because they think it goes too far in government meddling. The idea was based on one that was abandoned in New Zealand at the end of the previous year after a change in that nation’s administration.
Although the number of smokers in the UK has decreased by two thirds since the 1970s, official statistics show that 6.4 million individuals, or around 13% of the population, still smoke.
