The United Kingdom will ban disposable electronic cigarettes, highly appreciated among young people for their fruity flavor, but which worry doctors and health authorities, the Conservative Government announced on Monday. The ban is part of a wider plan to combat smoking announced last autumn by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
“One of the most worrying trends at the moment is the rise of vaping among young people and therefore we must act before this becomes endemic,” he said, quoted in a press release.
A popular product among young people.
According to official figures, among young people aged 11 to 17 who vape, the proportion of those who consume disposable electronic cigarettes, also called “puffs”, has multiplied by nine in two years.
The consumption of these disposable products is “a key factor in the alarming increase” in the number of young people using electronic cigarettes, says the government, which points to the “unknown” long-term effects of vaping.
The government “wants to help children avoid being catastrophically drawn into nicotine addiction, to which vaping is often a gateway,” Health Minister Victoria Atkins told the BBC.
He specified that this ban should take place at the beginning of next year.
A broader anti-smoking plan
In addition to this ban on disposable electronic cigarettes, London will also reduce the number of authorized flavors for classic electronic cigarettes, make their packaging less attractive and regulate the way these products are presented in stores so that they are less visible to consumers. youths.
Smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in the UK, the government says. It causes approximately one in four cancer deaths. Last October, the Prime Minister also announced that he wanted to extend the ban on cigarette sales so that the United Kingdom would progressively become a tobacco-free country. Currently, the legal age to buy cigarettes in the UK is 18 and the government wants to increase this legal age by one year each year.
In France, the National Assembly unanimously adopted in December in first reading a text to ban single-use electronic cigarettes, a first step towards a ban that must still be confirmed by Brussels.
Source: BFM TV
