SMOORE, the world’s largest international vaping technology and manufacturing company, which is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, has vowed not to work with brands who use flavour names, packaging or product designs which are attractive to children. The announcement comes as the government’s consultation on e-cigarettes, which is focussed on addressing youth vaping, comes to a close this week (December 6th).
The company which creates the atomisation technology that is contained within the vaping devices, wants to rid the industry of flavour names such as "cotton candy", "gummy bear", "watermelon bubblegum" and "blueberry popsicle", as well as stealth products which could be hidden inside a teenager’s pencil case and product designs which look like toys, soft drinks or cartoon characters.
The company has created a list of flavours that it will not be involved with and is setting up a vape flavour detection squad to monitor the market for new flavours coming onto the market that could be considered as being appealing to minors.
Rex Zhang, Strategy Director at SMOORE, says: "The vape industry represents the best chance the world has ever seen to eradicate deadly cigarettes and we cannot allow this opportunity to be squandered."
"Vaping was invented for this very purpose, and we need to ensure that it is focussed on the adult smoking market."
"There is absolutely no place for any vaping product to look like a child’s highlighter pen, be shaped like a much-loved cartoon character or iconic children’s game or be filled with liquid called ‘gummy bear, cotton candy, strawberry milkshake or parma violet."
Every single company under the SMOORE’s umbrella has been ordered to undertake a root and branch review to ensure that none of its products or those of its customers on the OEM and ODM side of its business could be seen as appealing to children, and it will not work with brand owners who fail to live up to the same high standards.
SMOORE, whose ground-breaking heating technology is found in one third of the world’s pod vapes, is putting its customers on notice of its new clampdown.
Just like a "no fly list" imposed by airlines around the world, it wants to see an industry "no buy list" so that no more child-friendly products are offered for sale.
Mr Zhang added: "We want other companies to follow our lead on this because we have to ensure that we stop young people vaping and we strongly believe that this must happen regardless of what the government ends up doing."
"We cannot squander this opportunity to help secure a smoke-free generation and, in order to do this, we need both the general public and governments on our side."
"It is only by uniting as an industry from beginning to end and making a clear commitment to doing all in our power to tackle youth vaping that we will be able to achieve this."
"The UK has always been seen as a world-leading example in fair and proportionate regulation of the vape industry and let’s not give them any reason at all to move from that position."
As part of the move to tackle child appealing vape devices, the company has also called for more standardisation of product sizes and shapes which it believes will also help "faster disassembly at waste treatment sites, helping to increase recycling rates of vapes." In addition, it wants to see every batch of disposable vapes and pre-filled pods being randomly sampled for product compliance, with whole batches, typically a 100,000 devices, being rejected if any number of non-compliant products are identified.
Such measures are necessary to motivate the compliant brands and producers and punish the offenders. A strict yet open market place will encourage more innovations in the industry to create products that will serve its job even better with every new generation. Taking Smoore’s own recent innovation for example, the FEELM2.0, which is giving consumers more value and making the product more environmentally friendly by offering 1000 puffs in a 2ml tank compared to the average of 600 puffs in older vapes.
Notes to Editor
The non-exhaustive list of flavours that SMOORE has identified as being child-friendly are:
· Skittles
· Rainbow
· Cotton Candy
· Strawberry Donut
· Gummy Bear
· Watermelon Bubblegum
· Bubblegum Berry
· Blue Slushy
· Blue Wolf
· Starburst
· Pink Pop
· Strawberry Ice Cream
· Strawberry Milkshake
· Blueberry Popsicle
· Root Beer
· Lilt
· Blackjack
· Parma Violet
· Smash
· Dr Reptile
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