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Policymakers have proposed a potential ban on fruit-flavoured vapes. Up in arms the vaping community has fought back, attributing flavours as a proven method to quit smoking.

Words: Grace Lynk

Following policymakers’ recent consideration to stop the sale of flavoured e-cigarettes, the vaping community fear this could derail the quitting journey of 1.5 million vapers.

A recent announcement by Neil O’Brien, Health Minister, implied that the government is currently considering an outright ban on fruit flavoured vapes and e-liquids following a rise in youth vaping.

In his speech, the British politician said: “We need to do two things…on the one hand, stop children taking up vaping and on the other, exploit the huge potential of vaping to help adult smokers quit.”

Since the announcement, several vaping companies and advocates have come forward to express their concerns as to the methods being suggested by the Government to prevent youth vaping.

Although the need to restrict children’s access to vape products is remarkably important, figureheads in the vaping industry don’t believe that a flavour ban is the way to achieve this.

Neil Mclaren, co-CEO of Vaping.com, an e-cigarette marketplace, said: “it’s the government restrictions that are the problem, not the flavours or colours.”

“The government should instead be looking to make it illegal to sell vapes without a licence and enforce meaningful fines on shops caught selling products to anyone underage.”

Dr Katherine East, senior author from King’s College London, suggested an alternative way of ensuring children are deterred from vaping products after conducting a study on marketing.

The research associate said: “Our study found that removing brand imagery from packs reduced appeal of vapes to teenagers without reducing appeal to adults.”

“This is a vital difference, as it means that vapes can still appeal to adults as a tool to stop smoking, particularly because our previous research has established vaping is significantly less harmful than smoking.”

In lieu of this study, Dr Sarah Jackson, Principal Research Fellow at the UCL Tobacco and Alcohol Research Group, referenced a past investigation regarding cigarette marketing.

She said: “In the UK, plain packaging requirements for cigarettes and hand-rolled tobacco have been in place since 2017 – and data suggests smoking rates have fallen as a result – so there’s precedent for this type of intervention.”

In light of this research suggesting a flavour ban is not the constructive way to tackle youth vaping, it comes as no surprise that people are upset by the proposal.

The UK Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA) have contributed their own thoughts on the matter, with the regulatory association referencing a recent poll to share vapers opinions on the flavour ban.

The poll saw that 76 percent of 2000 adults who vape only started in order to quit smoking, with eight in ten claiming that flavoured vapes were the most helpful in the quitting process. The poll also revealed that four in ten vapers believe that upping enforcement measures in retailers would be a more effective way of tackling youth vaping, instead of an outright ban.

Following the results of this poll and the announcement from the Government, the UKVIA presented their own proposal on how to better tackle youth vaping.

The association said that there should be ‘fines of up to £10,000 per instance’ for retailers caught selling to children and a ‘new national registration scheme for retailers.’

This hard-hitting action plan aims to dissuade the idea that banning flavours is the best route to stop children from picking up vapes, and that targeting retailers selling to under 18s is the obvious solution.