The Government is due to approve legislation tomorrow comprehensively banning the sale and marketing of vapes to teenagers.
The Public Health (Tobacco and Nicotine Inhaling Products) Bill bans the sale of vapes to people under-18.
There is currently no mandatory age restriction on the sale and marketing of e-cigarettes.
The sale of vapes will also be banned from places or events where children are “the majority of attendees”.
Irish Medical Times columnist Dr Chris Luke said this legislation will reduce “concerns about vaping”.
A teen vaping on the street. Image: Steven Gill / Alamy“People like me have been worried for at least 10 years about the potential for nicotine addiction amongst youngsters,” he told Newstalk Breakfast.
Dr Luke said vaping among those under-18 has risen to 40% in the UK, and the figures are likely the same in Ireland.
“The problem is with vaping is that it has been sold or marketed very successfully as a much safer alternative to smoking,” he said.
“It is better than just counselling or nicotine replacement therapy, but we're increasingly seeing that the impact of long-term vaping on youngsters’ lungs and in terms of people preceding to smoke.”
Advertising
The legislation also bans the advertisement of vapes on public transport, in cinemas and near schools.
Dr Luke said this is one of the most “promising” measures suggested in legislation.
“You know from alcohol [regulations] - what’s out of sight is out of mind,” he said. “If the product is constantly in sight because it's on the TV or it's on billboards, and then it's always in mind and very tempting.”
Banning all vapes
Australia has recently introduced a total ban on recreational vaping. Dr Luke said this is a hard decision to make when we don’t yet fully know the impact of vaping.
“Most of the science only looks at the first two years of vaping, and in fact, we've known in pharmaceuticals, that you really need to look at 10 to 15 years,” he said.
“It's interesting to see that in China where so many vapes are produced, and in America as well as Australia, there are huge efforts to clamp down on the of the accessibility of vaping to youngsters.”
‘Big Tobacco’
Newstalk Breakfast host Ciara Kelly said this legislation is overdue, considering the data that has been coming out of the US “for years”.
“Not long after vaping was introduced to us, we have a quarter of a million teenagers vaping who had never smoked and were never likely to smoke,” she said.
“This is this is where Big Tobacco has gone. Big Tobacco has moved into this area, and it is not a good thing for our kids.”
