New research finds vape ban will have disastrous backfiring effect on young people’s health

Disposable vapes were banned in the UK on 1st June to crack down on youth vaping and protect children’s health, but a new study has found it will actually have the opposite effect.

The research conducted by Future Health estimated that up to 200,000 people will start smoking instead as a result of the ban, and most of these will be young people. That would add a huge 0.4% to the overall smoking rate.

They surveyed 4,000 UK adults using disposable vapes and found that a massive 12% said they will switch to smoking instead. 54% plan to switch to another vape, while 15% plan to stop vaping and 9% will use other nicotine replacements.

People aged 18-24 were most likely to say they would take up smoking as a result of the ban, hinting that people even younger could be enticed too.

“The Government has committed welcome and strong action to reduce smoking and tackle youth vaping,” the report’s author and former government advisor Richard Sloggett said.

“However these findings show that urgent work is needed to ensure that efforts to reduce youth vaping do not have the unintended consequence of increasing the numbers smoking – particularly amongst younger people.”

Credit: Canva

“The ban also feels like being a missed opportunity, with hundreds of thousands of people soon to be looking for alternatives to disposable vapes but over half saying they will simply switch to another product.”

He said the Government needs to commit to a “national mass media anti-smoking campaign” to help ensure that those using disposable vapes “do not turn to smoking instead”.

Most Read

Plumber breaks silence on what his experience with Bonnie Blue was *really* like

Woman who ‘died’ for eight minutes describes exactly what she saw, and it’s terrifying

The bleak aftermath of Bonnie Blue’s 1,000 guys in 12 hours challenge, in pictures

As explained by the NHS, nicotine vaping is less harmful than smoking as it doesn’t contain tobacco, which is really bad for your health, causing cancer and heart disease.

Smoking is the biggest cause of cancer in the UK and is responsible for around a fifth of all cancer deaths each year.

The disposable vape ban was also introduced to reduce environmental waste as they end up in landfill and release substances like lead and mercury into our soil, rivers and streams.

For more like this, like The Tab on Facebook.

Featured image by: @tessau69/TikTok