Speaking ahead of the introduction of a ban on the sale of disposable vapes on Sunday 1st June Neil Johnston, Public Affairs and Policy Manager at Northern Ireland Chest Heart & Stroke (NICHS), commented; “There might be a role for vapes in helping existing smokers to quit. However, as a society we should be doing everything we can to discourage non-smokers from taking up vaping. Evidence suggests there are health risks – cardiovascular and respiratory - associated with vaping so we have a duty to protect people’s health, especially young people, from becoming addicted to vaping.”
NICHS is calling for the age of sale to be raised to 21.
Neil continues; “The ban on disposables is a positive move – it will hopefully reduce the problem of littering and discourage young people from buying vapes. We need to go further. Soon the Assembly will have the power to register and license premises that sell vapes, and we hope this is introduced as quickly as possible to assist councils to enforce the rules on vaping sales. Beyond that we need to raise the age of sale to 21 so that no one who is of school age would have any business being in a vaping shop.”
“There has been an explosion in the number of young people who are vaping in recent years and yet increasingly we are seeing reports of people with health issues that are related to their vaping.”
NICHS also backs the Irish Heart Foundation’s call for disposables to be banned in the Republic of Ireland.
Neil concludes; “It makes sense for policy regarding vaping to be aligned either side of the border and we would welcome any move by the Dail to introduce a ban of disposable vapes.”
