Northern Ireland Chest Heart & Stroke (NICHS) has welcomed the announcement by UK government that it is legislating to ban disposable vapes across the UK.
Fidelma Carter, Head of Public Health at NICHS, commented; "We welcome and support the proposed ban on disposable vapes, a measure that has had strong support from the Northern Ireland population during the smoke free consultation phase.”
“We very much welcome that the Prime Minister is pressing ahead with UK legislation. However, the decision to implement the required regulations in NI lies with the current inactive NI Assembly. We hope that the Assembly will be operational soon, and we will advocate and encourage the Assembly Members to back these regulations.”
“We endorse the message that people should only use vapes as a short-term measure to help them quit smoking and that if you don’t smoke you shouldn’t take up vaping.”
“One area where we felt that government could have done more is in regulation of retailers. In Northern Ireland all shops that sell tobacco are registered with their local council. We believe that vape retailers should also be registered. This would help councils to ensure that retailers are only selling vapes to people who are aged 18 and over.”
Northern Ireland Chest Heart & Stroke also welcome the announcement that the government is pushing ahead with legislation to make it illegal to sell tobacco products to anyone born on or after 1 January 2009.
Fidelma concluded; “NICHS have been arguing for an increase in the age of sale and very much welcome the Prime Minister’s pledge to create a smoke free generation.”
