The government recently announced a call for evidence led by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) to help identify opportunities to reduce the access that under age people have to vaping products while still ensuring they are easily available to adult smokers as a stop smoking tool.
What does the call for evidence mean?
Vaping products are strictly regulated in the UK, and for a decade the use of vapes by young people in the UK remained consistently low and there are a range of restrictions in place to prevent the uptake and use of e-cigarettes by those under the age of 18.
However recent data collected by an NHS Digital survey shows that regular vape use among 11 – 15 year olds has doubled from 2% in 2018 to 4% in 2021. Furthermore, a report from Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) indicated an increase in vaping among 11 – 17 year olds from 4% in 2020 to 7% in 2022.
The call for evidence aims to collect information from contributors about ways in which we can tackle the uptake of underage vaping, without having a negative impact on the availability of vaping products to adult smokers.
The government have identified the following themes as key points of interest for those contributing evidence:
·Building regulatory compliance: ensuring only adult smokers can access legally compliant vape products.
·The appeal of vape products: how the appearance and product characteristics of vapes may attract children.
·Marketing and promotion of vape products: how the marketing and promotion of vapes may attract children.
·The role of social media: the impact of social media on the uptake and use of vaping by children.
·Effective educational approaches to prevent the uptake of vaping by children.
·The impact of vapes on the environment, particularly disposable products.
·Understanding the vape market.
Respondents can contribute to the call for evidence by completing an online survey, and the government are aiming to publish a response outlining the opportunities to tackle youth vaping identified through the evidence 12 weeks after the closing date of June 6th 2023.
Government recognise vaping as a ‘vital’ tool for adult smokers
In their Nicotine vaping in England: 2022 evidence update OHID confirmed vaping to be at least 95% less harmful than smoking and research like the recent Cochrane review have found vaping to be one of the most effective stop smoking aids, and twice as effective as other nicotine replacement therapies.
As part of the call for evidence the government have made it clear that their stance on vaping as a vital tool for smoking reduction has not changed, and they will continue to actively encourage adult smokers to switch to vaping as a substantially less harmful alternative to smoking.
Vaping is regarded as being a crucial tool in the aim to reach the government’s goal for England to be smokefree by 2030. Ensuring that the measures used to tackle youth vaping does not restrict the availability of vaping products to adult smokers is an important part of that, as their use currently contributes between 50,000 and 70,000 fewer smokers per year.
These rogue retailers who are willingly selling to underage people were highlighted in a recent programme of test purchasing by the Chartered Trading Standards Institute. It used under 18s to conduct age verification and product compliance testing on locations selling vaping products. This was not only conducted to identify locations that will sell vaping products to underage people, but also locations selling products that do not comply with UK regulations and are not legal to sell in the UK at all. The following locations permitted the highest amount of illegal sales:
Market or car boot sales (100% non-compliant, or 3 sales from 3 attempts)
Discount shops (52% non-compliant, or 11 sales from 21 attempts)
Mobile phone shops (50% non-compliant, or 10 sales from 20 attempts)
The Health Minister did recently announce a substantial step that the government is taking to tackle these sales with the new ‘illicit vapes enforcement squad’ which will be led by Trading Standards. This squad will help to crack down on both the sale of vaping products to those underage and also the sale of illicit and unregulated vaping products.
At a glance
·The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) have announced a call for evidence to identify opportunities to reduce the access that under age people have to vaping products
·They have expressed the importance of tackling youth vaping without impacting the accessibility of vaping products as a stop smoking tool for adult smokers
·The government still consider vaping a vital tool for smoking reduction will continue to encourage adult smokers to switch to vaping as a substantially less harmful alternative to smoking