A loophole allowing retailers to give free vape samples to children is set to be closed under government plans to curb their use among young people.
Extracts below and a comment from me.
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A new crackdown on vape marketing would prevent the "unacceptable" targeting of children and teens, Rishi Sunak said...
A recent BBC investigation found that illegal vapes confiscated from school pupils contained far higher levels of lead, nickel and chromium than deemed safe. The prime minister said he was shocked by this finding...
"There is a range of products which are clearly not designed for adults. They're designed to appeal to children in the way they are marketed, promoted and the flavours they use," [Sunak] said...
Two out of five young people said they had smoked vapes "just to give it a try" and one in five because "other people use them, so I join in".
Brightly coloured disposable vapes, which are available in a variety of flavours, are the most popular product among teens and most are bought from corner shops...
Some companies are giving away free samples.
In the past year, thousands of children in the UK were given a free vape, according to data from Action on Smoking and Health (Ash).
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COMMENT (NPW): This should serve as a warning to other countries, especially LMICs where legal enforcement is less well resourced.
HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org
