UK Local Council Calls for Disposable Ban by 2024
According to a Reuters report, local councils across England and Wales are urging the UK government to impose a ban on the sale of disposable e-cigarettes by 2024 due to environmental and health concerns. The Local Government Association (LGA), representing local councils in England and Wales, stresses the urgency of implementing the ban swiftly to avoid a potential influx of disposable e-cigarettes as the European Union plans to ban them by 2026 and France from December this year.
The LGA reports that an estimated 1.3 million disposable e-cigarettes are discarded weekly, posing a threat to waste and rubbish collection and causing fires in rubbish trucks. The design of disposable e-cigarettes, which integrates the battery with the plastic and is nearly impossible to recycle without special treatment, is a critical issue. Local councils also express concern about the effects of e-cigarettes on children and adolescents.
David Fothergill, Chairman of the LGA Community Wellbeing Board, says, “Disposable e-cigarettes are fundamentally flawed by design and are an unsustainable product. A ban would be more effective than trying to recycle more e-cigarettes.”
The UK Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA) defended disposable e-cigarettes. John Dunne, the director-general of the association, in an interview with BBC Radio on Saturday, said, "Disposable e-cigarettes have been around for over a decade and are a cheap and accessible product that can help smokers quit." He stated that the vaping industry is striving to reduce its environmental impact and warned that a ban could lead to more illegal products entering the UK.
The IBVTA believes an outright ban on an entire category of vape products would be discriminatory. IBVTA members supply single-use vape products for vulnerable adults that would otherwise be smoking, often in projects that are publicly funded. "Our concerns about the unintended consequences of an outright ban must also be shared by many people working in frontline local health and wellbeing services."
Reference:
*The content of this article is written after the extraction, compilation and integration of multiple information for exchange and learning purposes. The copyright of the summary information still belongs to the original article and its author. If any infringement is found, please contact us to delete it.
