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Northern Ireland to ban single use vapes in 2025
The sale and supply of single use vapes will be banned in Northern Ireland by April 2025.
Environment Minister Andrew Muir said while the timeline was "extremely ambitious", he recognised "strong support" for a ban.
Across the UK, an estimated five million single use vapes are thrown away or incorrectly disposed of weekly.
A single use vapes working group has been formed between Northern Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales.
Under current plans, each nation will progress its own legislation and have agreed to work towards a joint coming into force date of 1 April 2025.
In the 2023 UK government consultation, 90.4% of individual respondents from Northern Ireland agreed there should be restrictions on the sale and supply of single use vapes and 84.9% agreed that restrictions should take the form of a ban on their sale and supply.
The Northern Ireland head of the Asthma + Lung UK charity welcomed the announcement of the ban as a "huge win" for lung health.
"Single use vapes are increasingly visible in our schools, hooking our children on nicotine and littering our streets," said Joseph Carter.
"This year we surveyed a thousand people in Northern Ireland and over 80% said they are concerned about children and young people vaping with no history of smoking and the use of vapes in schools.
"If you're a smoker and you want to quit tobacco, vaping can be a helpful way to give up smoking.
"But for children and those who don't smoke, starting to vape isn't a good idea, especially if you have a lung condition."
Source: BBC News 2 May 2024
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Vaping reforms: Australian National University Professor Emily Banks makes shock admission at parliamentary inquiry
An anti-vaping professor has been grilled during a senate inquiry to provide examples of e-cigarette deaths before she eventually admitted the only known deaths is when vape batteries exploded.
Professor Emily Banks was questioned at the senate inquiry for the Therapeutic Goods and Other Legislation Amendment (Vaping Reforms) Bill on Wednesday.
The head of the Centre for Public Health Data and Policy at Australian National University in Canberra is a leading advocate for stricter regulations on vapes due to health concerns regarding the popular devices.
Federal Nationals Senator for Queensland Matt Canavan told the inquiry that he is still not sure 'after all these years' if anyone had died using a vape in places like the United Kingdom or New Zealand.
'Or even just a severe medical episode. Because I'm trying to reach what the threshold is here before we ban something,' he said.
Professor Banks talked about the 34 countries that had banned vapes before saying the issue is bigger than consenting adults buying the product, as children have been targeted by companies to become addicted.
Mr Canavan conceded that while it was an important point, he wanted an answer to his question which Professor Banks finally answered.
'So we're not just talking about deaths, there are examples of deaths in those countries from exploding batteries, for example,' she said.
Although Professor Banks couldn't point to anyone dying because of inhaling e-cigarettes, she listed other heath implications.
Professor Banks told the inquiry that 30 per cent of Aussie e-cigarette users have never smoked, with just under a third saying they would find it difficult to quit.
She also conceded that the impact of vapes are largely unknown due to them being a recent product.
'We don't know a lot of the effects—we don't know what it does to cancer and we don't know what it does to cardiovascular disease—it's very difficult to actually come to an appreciation of the comparison,' Professor Banks said.
Around 24,000 Australians lose their lives each year to cigarettes, according to the Cancer Council, a fact that has divided health advocates and politicians in their support of vapes, with some believing they are safer.
Source: Daily Mail, 2 May 2024
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Podcast: Let's talk e-cigarettes - Jaqueline Avila
Associate Professor Jamie Hartmann-Boyce and Associate Professor Nicola Lindson discuss the new evidence in e-cigarette research and interview Professor Jaqueline Avila from the Department of Gerontology, University of Massachusetts Boston, USA. Professor Avila describes their pilot study to assesses the harm-reduction potential of e-cigarettes and oral nicotine pouches among people who smoke with low socioeconomic status. This pilot of 45 people provides novel evidence that e-cigarettes and nicotine pouches can be a harm-reduction tool for individuals with lower SES who smoke and are not willing to quit smoking, contributing to reducing tobacco-related disparities in this population. This study is funded by Brown University.
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Tobacco and Vapes Bill: Further to consider the Bill – Oral evidence
On April 30th and May 1st, the Public Bill Committee for the Tobacco and Vapes Bill heard oral evidence from various health stakeholders and academic experts. Those presenting evidence included Michelle Mitchell OBE, Chief Executive, Cancer Research UK; Deborah Arnott, Chief Executive, Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), Professor Sir Chris Whitty, Chief Medical Officer for England, Dr Charmaine Griffiths, Chief Executive, British Heart Foundation; Sarah Sleet, Chief Executive Officer, Asthma and Lung UK, Professor Sanjay Agrawal, RCP’s special adviser on tobacco, Royal College of Physicians, University College London; Professor Ann McNeill and many more.
Please see the transcripts of the oral evidence presented below:
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First sitting – see here
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Second sitting – see here
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May 1 first & second sitting – see the first here & second here
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