FRUIT and candy-flavoured throwaway vapes targeted at teenagers are facing a ban, The Sun can reveal.
Ministers are to announce a new clampdown on children getting hooked on brightly coloured Elf Bars and dodgy nicotine knock offs.
Fruit and candy-flavoured throwaway vapes targeted at teenagers are facing a ban, The Sun can reveal
ShutterstockConcerns over certain vape flavours being targeted at children has led to a variety of flavours disappearing from shelves[/caption]
Public Health Minister Neil O’Brien will launch a call for evidence within days ahead of restricting access to the powerful nicotine products for under 18s.
While health chiefs remain “extremely pro” getting adult smokers off fags and onto vapes there is mounting concern about how some products are targeted at kids.
Popular flavours like Apple Peach, Cotton Candy Ice, Pink Grapefruit and Strawberry Kiwi face disappearing from the shops as a result.
The review will look at the “appearance and characteristics” of such products on the market including branding, marketing, colour and flavours.
It will also investigate how certain products are advertised on social media amid concern they are being deliberately targeted at youths.
Mr O’Brien will use a major speech early next month on smoking to signal the Government’s concerns and launch a consultation from experts on how to protect kids.
Included in his big intervention will be a formal response to an independent review by Dr Javed Khan OBE into the government’s ambition to make England and Wales smoke free by 2030.
His report was published last year and recommended extreme anti-smoking measures such as printing health warnings on individual cigarettes.
His review suggested “mandating anti-smoking messages on cigarette sticks, such as the number of ‘minutes of life lost’ per cigarette”.
He also said fags should not be white but printed in “dissuasive colours (like green or brown)” to put people off using them.
He insisted that each oddly coloured stick should carry a “smoking kills” warning – but The Sun understands ministers will reject these severe measure.
Dr Khan’s review published last summer also called for any film or TV show showing smoking to be banned before the 9pm watershed and be mandated by law to carry an on screen anti-smoking message while cigarettes or cigars are on screen.
A Whitehall source said: “That is not something we are looking at taking forward.”
NHS figures from 2021 revealed almost one in ten 11 to 15-year-olds actively vape compared to just six per cent in 2018.
That figure soars to almost one in five over over 15s.
Last year 52.8 per cent of vapers were using disposable products like Elf Bars as the import market of cheap throwaway vapes exploded from just 7.8 per cent in 2021.
A number of major supermarkets have removed Elf Bars from their shelves amid concerns that the Chinese-made products have illegal levels of nicotine in them.
ITV reported in February that Watermelon flavoured ELFBAR 600s were found to have at least 50 per cent more than the legal limit for nicotine e-liquid.
They have been removed from shelves in Morrisons, Tesco and Sainsbury’s but remain widely available in corner shops, specialist stores and petrol stations.