A Newark stop smoking service says vaping should be included in the making of a 'smoke free generation'
It comes as the second hearing into the Tobacco and Vapes Bill is being discussed in the House of Commons today
As the second hearing into a bill that hopes to create a 'smoke free generation' gets underway today, a stop smoking service in Newark is calling for vapes to be included.
The Tobacco and Vapes Bill is looking to make it illegal for anyone turning 15 or younger to be sold tobacco and is being heard in the House of Commons later.
The bill already aims to reduce the use of vapes by young people with restricted packaging, flavouring and accessibility, but clinical hypnotherapist Martina McKeogh from Hypnotherapy Newark says it needs to go further:
She says her clients are "a mix between women and men. However, I would say recently, it tends to be older people, so it's the people who've been smoking for 20 years. You see less and less younger people for stop smoking - but, you do see people for stop vaping.
She added that trends show it's a growing issue:
"Vaping has become the new smoking and you know, I'm not here to say the rights and wrongs of vaping. The evidence will come out in the next few years, I'm sure, but it is a habit. Just the same as smoking is. In fact, it's a worse habit, worse because you can do it in more places.
"I always say that people with vapes in their hand look like babies with a dummy, and they're carrying it around with them everywhere. So it creates more problems than smoking in a way. So yeah, younger people vaping, older people smoking for the most part."
The Tobacco and Vapes Bill 2023-24 fulfils a series of government proposals to create a ‘smoke free generation’ and reduce the appeal and availability of vapes to young people.
The proposals were set out in the government’s policy paper; Stopping the start: our new plan to create a smoke free generation.
The Bill was introduced to the Commons on 20 March 2024, and is due to have its second reading on 16 April 2024.
The Bill would make it an offence anywhere in the UK to sell tobacco products to anyone born on or after 1 January 2009. The current age-of-sale across the UK is 18-years.
It would do this directly for England and Wales, and it would amend existing age-of-sale legislation in Scotland and Northern Ireland to the same effect.
In relation to vapes, the bill will - on top of the current offence to sell nicotine vaping products to under-18s - make further provisions to reduce youth vaping:
- The Bill would make it an offence to sell non-nicotine vaping products to under-18s, in England and Wales. It would grant powers to Ministers in Northern Ireland to make regulations to do the same. In Scotland, it is already an offence to sell non-nicotine vaping products to under-18s.
- The Bill would also allow the Secretary of State to make regulations restricting the retail packaging, and contents and flavouring of vaping and nicotine products. This measure would apply across the UK.
- The Bill would make it an offence to distribute free vaping products to under-18s in England and Wales. It would grant powers to Ministers in Scotland and Northern Ireland to introduce similar restrictions or prohibitions.
- The Bill would enable the Secretary of State to make new regulations restricting the display of vaping or nicotine products in retail outlets in England and Wales (clause 11). It would enable Ministers in Scotland (clause 45) and Northern Ireland (clause 54) to do the same.
To find out more about the Bill, go to the Tobacco and Vape Bill.