The sale of e-cigarettes and vaping products to underage people is set to be banned.
Stephen Donnelly is seeking to formally ban the sale of nicotine inhaling products to those under 18 from early next year. The Health Minister is also planning to restrict the types of retailers that can sell vaping products.
Another step of his plan to reduce the number of nicotine-addicted minors is to curb the advertising of vapes and e-cigarettes near schools. This will also apply to a number of other settings frequented by children and young teenagers, which includes public transport.
Reach more: Minister says e-cigarettes ‘worsens the world’ amid plans to ban single use vapes
The goal is to limit children’s exposure to commercial messages “normalising or glamourising” the purchase and use of e-cigarettes, according to the Irish Independent. And vape shops in Ireland support the vaping products ban for minor.
Vape Business Ireland (VBI) spokesperson Eoin O’Boyle told Dublin Live. “From the outset, our association has made clear that vaping products should only be accessed by adult ex-smokers.” He that they are hopeful that the ban will be enacted as soon as possible.
The VBI were trying to ensure that vape products remain inaccessible to youth by making a number of recommendations to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health earlier this year, including on the rollout of age verification technology as an additional safeguard. Children who vape are five times more likely to go on and start smoking, an evidence review by the Health Research Board found.
“Minors are primarily the ones who use vapes the most from what I see,” Katelyn Benson, a contributor with the youth information website SpunOut, said. “I think that they are clearly unaware of the consequences of what they are doing so a ban is the way forward.”
Teenagers can be misled by the amount of nicotine written on vaping products, she said, as most disposables have the amount of nicotine written for them - but it’s actually per millilitre which adds up to be a high amount of nicotine that people are intaking. “When you are a teenager you are still developing physically,” Ms Benson said.
“And I think that vaping is damaging to health. No matter what you inhale into your lungs, it’s really not good.”
Health consequences from vaping may be seen further down the line when proper research is done, she thinks. Ms Benson has previously talked about the issue on Morning Ireland where she said that the youngest vaper she has heard about was an eight-year-old child.
But it’s in secondary school however when young people usually start vaping. "[Kids are] just going in, vaping in the bathrooms, blowing away the smoke, and then coming out and the teachers can’t say anything because there’s really no smell," she said.
"A lot of vapes are disposable so after a certain amount of drags from the vapes, you can just throw them away, which means that a lot of them can actually do them in secrecy without their parents knowing."
READ MORE
Dublin Fire Brigade warning after vape catches fire and burns household furniture
HSE gives vape warning, urging public to contact GP if feeling unwell
Sign up to the Dublin Live Newsletter to get all the latest Dublin news straight to your inbox.
