Calls are growing for a ban on disposable vapes. Eighteen environment and health groups have written to the Government demanding an end to the sale of single-use e-cigarettes to stem their “rapidly escalating threat” to public health and the environment.
It follows research earlier this year by not-for-profit organisation Material Focus that found at least 1.3 million disposable vapes are thrown away every week, equating to two vapes per second - enough to fill 22 football pitches per year. The groups, including Green Alliance, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, the Marine Conservation Society and the RSPCA, argue that disposable vapes are “unnecessary electrical items” that contain single use plastic, nicotine and batteries, all of which are “hazardous to the environment and wildlife when littered”.
The products also contain lithium, a metal needed to help efforts to cut carbon emissions such as manufacturing electric cars. The Material Focus study also found that ten tonnes of lithium is discarded from disposable vapes each year, the same needed for 1,200 electric vehicles.
Uptake of disposable vapes among young people is “particularly concerning”, write the groups, with a seven-fold increase in the percentage of 11 to 17-year-olds opting for disposable products since 2021, according to Action on Smoking Health. The open letter is addressed to Environment Secretary Thérèse Coffey and Health Secretary Steve Barclay.
Libby Peake, head of resource policy at Green Alliance, said: “We need to be moving towards durable and reusable products designed sustainably, not inventing new ways to cause harm to the wildlife and wasting valuable resources. Ministers must act swiftly to ban disposable vapes to protect young people and our environment from this new and entirely avoidable threat.”
Dr Honey Smith, director and co-chair of the National Leads group of Greener Practice, said: “As a GP I see the effects of smoking every day of my working life. Whilst many GPs are happy to see short term vaping used as a route to giving up smoking, we don't know enough about vaping yet to determine how safe it is. There has been recent evidence that use of e-cigarettes is just as bad for the blood vessels as smoking cigarettes.
“Also, teenagers who vape are three to four times more likely to smoke cigarettes later in life. So it's very concerning that products are widely available that are especially attractive to teenagers, encouraging them to take up a habit that might cause them long term health problems.”
Chris Tuckett, director of programmes at Marine Conservation Society, said: “Unfortunately our beach clean volunteers have started to see single use vapes littered on our beaches around the UK. These products are made up of lots of different materials, which are rarely recycled, and pose a threat to marine life when littered. We must shift away from single use products, and therefore we fully support a ban on single use vapes.”
