Northern Ireland Chest Heart & Stroke (NICHS) has welcomed the announcement by Health Minister Robin Swann that measures being introduced at Westminster to further restrict smoking and to regulate vaping will include Northern Ireland.
Fidelma Carter, the charity’s Head of Public Health, commented; “We are delighted that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s proposal that the age at which people can legally smoke will be progressively raised will now include Northern Ireland. This would mean the UK is the only country in the world to enact this radical move to protect people from the dangers of smoking tobacco.”
The Assembly is to be asked to pass a Legislative Consent Motion so that the Bill introduced at Westminster will cover Northern Ireland. The Bill is also to include a ban on disposable vapes.
Fidelma continued; “Northern Ireland Chest Heart & Stroke have been at the forefront of the debate of vaping and have long campaigned for tighter regulation – not least to protect children from the risks of becoming addicted to vaping. We believe a ban on disposable vapes, and flavours that are clearly aimed at children, cannot come soon enough.”
Fidelma went on to encourage the Minister and the Assembly to consider additional legislative measures.
“We know that the number of young people under 18 who are taking up vaping is huge. We must do all we can to protect them. We will be writing to the Health Minister to urge him to require all retailers who wish to sell vapes to register with their local council – just as they have to do with tobacco. We believe this would greatly assist the battle to restrict sales to under 18s as the current situation is a ‘free-for-all’. Anyone who wants to can sell vapes and this makes it very difficult to enforce the regulations.”
“This is a step in the right direction and will begin to address some of the issues we at NICHS have been highlighting for a long time."
