Vaping industry opposes to plain packaging amid underage usage claims

The vaping industry body has strongly opposed the idea of  plain packaging for e-cigarettes, after councilors criticised the way the products are marketed.

The UK Vaping Industry Association says such a move, which was recently proposed by the Children’s Commissioner, would “conflate vaping and smoking”.

Conservative councilor Dan Cohen claimed the marketing of e-cigarettes was “outrageous”, saying they were “unambiguously designed to attract young people”. The bright colouring and flavouring within vapes were among the features highlighted in the criticism.

Responding to the concerns, the UKVIA said youth vaping “has to be urgently tackled”, but they insisted banning single-use vapes and bringing in plain packaging was not the answer.

John Dunne, the association’s director general, said: “Vapes, whether designed to be single or multiple use devices, are age-restricted products, such as alcohol or aerosol spray paints and should never be sold to children. This is an access issue not a product issue.”

Dunne said enforcing age restrictions on vapes was a “broken system” and called on the government to give more backing to Trading Standards.

It was reported last week that a Leeds council scrutiny meeting was told how underage teenagers are flocking to the city centre to buy vapes from certain shops. The city’s authorities are “really worried” about the “emerging” problem of underage e-cigarette sales. The city’s health scrutiny board is told that underage vape sales had overtaken reports of underage tobacco sales in Leeds.