Safety & Regulations
Ireland’s Public Consultation On Disposable Vape Ban
Table of Contents
You may have read my article I published last week which took a look at the new regulations that came into effect in Ireland regarding Vaping and what the new outlook for the country will be, including things like minimum age limit to purchase vaping products being set at 18, as well as shops requiring a licence to sell them as well which is all positive!
One of the big questions which was being asked was whether or not they would be banning flavoured vape juice as it had previously been bought up about being evoked to limit the attractiveness of vaping to underage users, but the good news is there’s no flavour ban plans!
Instead, the Irish Government launched a public consultation period surrounding the hot topic and cause of vaping industry headaches…Disposable Vapes. In this blog, I’m going to take a look at what this public consultation entails, and the options that have been put forward and how you can have your say on it, the same as I have!
Irish Government Rings The Changes For Vaping Regulations
As mentioned, I covered this topic in a different article last week which you can check out, but I’ll discuss what changes and regulations were implemented by the Irish Government on the subject of vaping.
- prohibit the sale of nicotine inhaling products to anyone under 18 years
- prohibit the sale of tobacco products and nicotine inhaling products at events for children
- prohibit the self-service sale of tobacco products and nicotine inhaling products
- introduce a strict licensing system for the retail sale of tobacco products and nicotine inhaling products
- prohibit the advertising of nicotine inhaling products around schools and on public transport
- provide additional enforcement powers to the Environmental Health Service for measures in the Bill and for all previous Tobacco Control Acts”
So, pretty run of the mill regulations I think you’ll agree, and things that were needed to be implemented. What really stands out to me is the fact that they are putting in a strict licencing system for the retail sale of nicotine inhaling products, as I think this is so good!
It’s something that we desperately need here in England, but there has been fears of shops not wanting to be paying additional fee’s to sell products they’ve previously been free to sell at no cost, but this shouldn’t be the reason that is stunting the Government’s plans of putting it into action.
As mentioned also, there was rumours circulating earlier this year about the potentially banning of flavoured vape juice as the primary target to lower down the amount of underage vaping that’s happening in Ireland currently, but from what I could see, there’s no plans for it and it seems to have been pushed aside, which is really imperative because flavours bans simply do not work….Australia can give good examples of this!
But the big follow on which came with these regulations was the launch of a “public consultation” period regarding what should happen with Disposable Vapes. Because as with every other country it seems, Disposable Vapes are reeking havoc with youth vaping statistics, and Ireland want to do something about it! Let’s have a look at this in more detail shall we?
What The Public Consultation Period Is
The public consultation period opened when this announcement was made and is due to come to a close on the 27th July, and this is where people can give their thoughts and views on what should happen regarding Disposable Vapes.
The Irish Government put forward three options for people to consider and essentially choose as the best option, and they are as following along with my personal thoughts on each individual option that could be enforced;
- Ban vapes – To me, this is the wrong option to go for. I can understand why people may think that this is a good idea, and it would basically solve all of the problems that seem to be coming through thick and fast, but Disposable Vapes do serve some sort of good purpose as well believe it or not. I won’t say too much positive on these, but they can help people have access to “experimenting” with vaping without having to break the bank and buy a starter kit, and some people do rely on using these as they don’t want the hassle and fuss of changing coils or refilling tanks etc.
- Deposit and return scheme – I could see this working, but I also feel that this probably would cause problems as well. The ideology behind this is people will pay more when they first buy a Disposable, and this acts as a Deposit, which they get back if they return a used Disposable Vape to the retailer, who can then recycle it through the correct channels. Where I see this falling short, is if people were to buy a Disposable from a shop, not every shop may be part of this scheme, so it would limit the person to only shopping at one specific place, which isn’t a bad thing, but not helpful if they were away from home for example and nowhere local actually took part in this scheme!
- Improving the existing producer responsibility scheme and consumer awareness – This shifts all of the responsibility onto the manufacturers and forces them to make people more aware of the environmental harm that Disposables can cause, and essential make it the law for this to happen every time and for manufacturers to take on the responsibility of ensuring their devices can be recycled, and letting their customers know how to do it.
If you hadn’t already figured out by process of elimination here, option 3 is the one that I will be backing within this public consultation, as to me it makes the most sense, and I firmly believe that it should be put onto the manufacturers to be held accountable for more being done to create awareness of the harm that these things are causing to the environment.
There are some manufacturers out there now that are taking positive steps forward regarding this, but still plenty out there turning a blind eye to it and just reaping the profits from the crazy high sales of Disposable Vapes every single week, which in turn is causing millions of used Disposables being dumped into landfill and causing no end of trouble and harm to our environment.
Respect Vapers Call To Action!
Respect Vapers are an Irish Vaping Advocacy group and they’re hard pushing a call to action and encouraging people to step up and have their say on this public consultation!
I really suggest that you get involved and have your say on things, even if you are not a resident of Ireland! This is because that whatever happens over there, could potentially cause a ripple effect and see something similar happen in neighbouring countries like England and/or Scotland.
You can follow the link, and simply sign up and have your say, and remember the public consultation period ends July 27th which is only a couple of weeks away, so don’t hang about!
