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UKVIA Welcomes Teen Vaping Action

UK vaping industry welcomes prospect of government action on underage vaping

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John Dunne, Director General of the UK Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA), said: “The UKVIA welcomes the fact that the Government are looking to crack down on youth access to vaping products. We have been calling for this for some time and earlier this week we launched a set of proposals for UK Government to support such an initiative, including stronger fines for retailers who sell to children (up from £2,500 to £10,000) and a compulsory registration scheme for retailers who sell vaping products.

“Our position is very clear – no one under the age of 18 should be using a vape device. Specifically regarding packaging and flavours we called on Government to set clear standards for e-liquid, flavour names and flavour descriptors on sale back in 2021. Our guidelines focus on limiting references to youth culture, removing imagery and descriptors which may be misleading, explicitly banning cartoons and youth-appealing iconography, and proportionately restricting flavour names/descriptors that may disproportionately appeal to underage users.

“We welcome pragmatic actions from the Government that stop vape devices getting into the wrong hands, but we also urge that regulation is proportionate and targeted so that it does not impact adversely on the public health prize that vaping represents for adult smokers. Early results from newly commissioned research, to be published in April 2023, show clearly that flavours play a critical role in helping smokers quit, with many saying a ban would lead them to return to smoking.

“As well as a nationwide retailer registration scheme, where retailers would risk being deregistered if they were found to be selling to minors, the UKVIA is also proposing a national test purchasing scheme, where retailers would be subject to ongoing monitoring to ensure that they were not breaking the age regulations on the sale of vape products.

“Finally, there is also a need to review the position on nicotine free e-liquids which are currently legal to sell to U18 year olds. This is nonsensical when future policy is looking to safeguard against vapes being sold to minors and also needs to be urgently addressed by Government.”

Dave Cross avatar

Dave Cross

Journalist at POTV
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Dave 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 vape companies to develop content for their websites.

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