Why disposable vapes should not be banned

The All Party Parliamentary Group on the Environment will today host a discussion about a possible ban on the sale of disposable or single-use vapes.

The event was first publicised two weeks ago. Chaired by Selaine Saxby MP, vice chair of the Environment APPG, three of the panellists - Libby Peake, Green Alliance; environmental campaigner Laura Young; and Caroline Johnson MP - have all called for a ban on disposable vapes.

Another panellist - the FT’s Alexandra Heal - will likely be less partisan and more nuanced but here’s how her colleague, Oliver Barnes, summarised, on Twitter, a feature they co-wrote in March:

They are terrible for the environment, they are pushing up vaping rates among UK teens and Shenzhen vape companies are making $$$

To be fair, the extensive, long-read article (The environmental cost of single-use vapes) did acknowledge the value of vapes to help smokers quit, but it concluded with this parting shot:

Until then, back in Leicestershire, it is left to educators like [headteacher Dan] Cleary to clean up the mess as more pupils pick up vaping habits. “I’d be really intrigued to know how people who produced these things are sleeping at the moment,” he says. “I suspect the wealth that they’re attracting might make that easier.”

But back to that APPG line-up. My first reaction on seeing it was to tweet, 'Looks a very balanced panel', with an eye-rolling emoji.

I then discovered, three days ago, that John Dunne, director general of the UK Vaping Industry Association, had (belatedly?) been added to the panel.

The UKVIA recognises the issues with disposable vapes (many of which are illicit) but, to the best of my knowledge, the industry doesn't support a ban on the product.

Hopefully, John will bring some balance to a discussion that was looking very one-sided, but he's still outnumbered.

Defra minister Rebecca Pow will give the Government’s response in her concluding remarks. I suspect she will play the same straight bat that public health minister Neil O’Brien wielded so expertly when fielding questions from the tobacco control industry following his speech at Policy Exchange last week.

Truth is, whatever their environmental impact, banning disposable vapes would be a massive backward step for a government that has put its faith in e-cigarettes as a safer alternative to smoking.

It would also deny consumers choice although the unregulated black market would quickly meet demand because there is one very simple reason why single use vapes are popular with consumers - convenience.

As I wrote here seven years ago:

My gut feeling – based on no research whatsoever – is that if hundreds of millions of smokers worldwide are to switch to vaping (e-cigarettes or heat not burn products) the device has to be as simple to use as a combustible cigarette.

I based my argument on the fact that in the 20th century the convenience of the mass manufactured cigarette effectively made the pipe obsolete, and the only way for the cigarette to be consigned to history in the 21st century is for consumers to be offered something that is just as easy (and pleasurable) to use as the combustible cigarette, and many e-cigarettes aren't.

See ‘Convenience and competition are key for emerging products’ (March 2016).

I accept there are issues with single-use vapes that need addressing, but banning them would be akin to throwing the baby out with the bath water.

Put simply, if the Government’s tobacco control strategy is based on encouraging smokers to switch to an alternative, and safer, nicotine product, as Neil O’Brien outlined in his speech last week, I can’t see how a ban on single use vapes would be anything other than counter productive.

I’m not saying environmental issues aren’t important, but disposable vapes must be seen in context and regulated accordingly. It can’t be beyond our intelligence to find solutions that stop far short of prohibition.

Meanwhile, what are we to make of the absence of a consumer group on today’s APPG panel? It’s not a surprise, but it has been noted.