The UK Disposable Vape Ban: A Step Forward or a Risky Move?

Are Vapes Being Banned?

It has been confirmed that disposable vapes will be banned in the UK from 1st June 2025, to ‘help tackle the rise in youth vaping and to help protect the environment’. This regulation was implemented under the 2022 to 2024 Conservative government by Rishi Sunak. Sir Keir Starmer, the newly elected Prime Minister backs the move to ban single-use disposable vape devices in the UK under the new Labour government.

Single-use disposable vapes offer an excellent introduction into vaping and have been instrumental in single handedly lowing smoking rates in the UK.

Ash (Action On Smoking and Health) August 2024 state in their factsheet Use of vapes among adults in Great Britain;

“The proportion of the population who currently vape this year is 11%, the highest rate ever, equal to 5.6 million adults in Great Britain.

More than half (53%) of current vapers are ex-smokers, equal to 3 million people. This proportion peaked in 2021 at 65%.

More than half of ex-smokers who quit in the last five years say they used a vape in their last quit attempt, which amounts to 2.7 million ex-smokers, of whom around two thirds are still vaping while around a third have quit vaping as well.”

These statistics prove that vapes are an effective tool to help adult smokers quit smoking for good. In history we have never seen a larger exodus of smokers quit. To put restrictions on such an effective product is irresponsible, harmful and non-beneficial to the UK public. With less people smoking, surely this is a good thing, right?

While the rise in the number of youths vaping in the UK is alarming, the government’s decision to ban disposable vapes will not tackle the problem and will only put children at greater risk by turning them to black market products which are illegal, counterfeit, non-compliant and potentially dangerous.

We have seen over the past few years a turbo-charged black market for large capacity illegal vapes, which the government and Trading Standards have proved they can’t control. With non-compliant newsagents, rogue vape stores and shops on UK highstreets continuing to sell non-TPD compliant vapes to kids.

A better measure to tackle children vaping wouldn’t be for an all out ban, but for the development of a vape retailer and distributor licensing initiative to make it more difficult to get away with underage sales of illegal vapes to minors and stop rogue traders from selling illicit and unregulated vapes.

The dangers of creating a nanny state which bans disposable vapes could discourage smokers from transitioning to vaping. Make existing vapers question the safety of vapes over cigarettes, and as a result set back the nation's smoke free 2030 ambitions.

If we look at other countries which have banned vapes, we can learn that it resorts to vapers turning to criminals to purchase their vaping products through illegal channels.

The same shop keepers selling illegal vapes to underage customers, will continue to sell banned single-use disposables in the UK. This not only hurts customers purchasing a product that helps them stay off cigarettes, but trusted vape stores who abide by the laws of the land.

The government is also looking to bring in vape flavour restrictions as well as heavy duty fees for vapes and e-liquids which will only further deter vapers and adult smokers from switching to vaping as a less harmful alternative.

To address the matter of the wasteful nature of disposable vapes. Disposable vapes can be recycled with WEEE products at local recycling facilities across the country so the precious materials can be used over again. How about the UK government using their platform to promote this?

At Tablites we have partnered with Greenwings vape recycling program, which is an excellent scheme where customers can drop off their used vapes at Tablites stores across the country for recycling. This e-cigarette recycling initiative prevents vapes from ending up in landfill or littering streets of the UK.

In their article Vaping to Quit Smoking, the NHS says…

“Evidence shows that vaping is substantially less harmful than smoking. Vaping exposes users to far fewer toxins and at lower levels than smoking cigarettes.

Switching to vaping significantly reduces your exposure to toxins that can cause cancer, lung disease, and diseases of the heart and circulation like heart attack and stroke. These diseases are not caused by nicotine, which is relatively harmless to health.”

Vapes are far less harmful to health than cigarette smoking, so why regulate a product which is doing far more good than harm?

The UK Health Security Agency in their blog 'Clearing up some myths around e-cigarettes' states;

“Smoking is the single most entirely preventable cause of ill health, disability, and death in the UK. It is responsible for around 80,000 deaths a year, including about:

64,000 deaths per year in England

8,300 deaths per year in Scotland

5,600 deaths per year in Wales

2,200 deaths per year in Northern Ireland

No other consumer product kills up to two-thirds of its users.”

They also state….

“Four out of 10 smokers and ex-smokers wrongly think nicotine causes most of the tobacco smoking-related cancer, when evidence shows nicotine actually carries minimal risk of harm to health. Although nicotine is the reason people become addicted to smoking, it is the thousands of other chemicals contained in cigarette smoke that causes almost all of the harm.

E-cigarette vapour does not contain tar or carbon monoxide, two of the most harmful elements in tobacco smoke.  It does contain some chemicals also found in tobacco smoke, but at much lower levels.

Vaping is not risk-free, but poses a small fraction of the risk of smoking cigarettes.”

To ban, heavily restrict and block the sale of vaping (a public health prize product) seems utterly counterproductive, dangerous and completely sends out the wrong message to vapers and those looking to switch to vaping.

Final Thoughts:

The proposed UK disposable vape ban, set to start on 1st June 2025, appears to be a well-intentioned but ultimately misguided response to real concerns about youth vaping and environmental impacts. While it’s crucial to address these issues, an outright ban on disposable vapes risks undermining the tremendous public health gains achieved by vaping. Millions of ex-smokers have successfully quit smoking with the help of vapes, as supported by data from organisations like ASH and the NHS. This ban could inadvertently push vapers toward more dangerous, unregulated black-market products, harming both public health and responsible retailers.

Rather than banning single-use disposables, a more effective solution would be to strengthen regulation around sales to minors and invest in recycling programs, like the partnership Tablites has with Greenwings. The focus should remain on educating the public about the benefits of vaping as a less harmful alternative to smoking, while also mitigating the risks associated with underage use and waste disposal. Regulating a product that has proven so beneficial in reducing smoking rates may create more harm than good, and careful consideration must be given to the broader impacts this ban will have on public health and the vaping community.