Vaping Technology
Time to ditch Disposable Vapes?
Is it time to ditch disposable vapes?
The rate in which the popularity of disposable vapes has increased over the last 18 months is nothing short of astronomical, outselling standard e-cigarettes by quite a margin. When you see a person vaping today, the likelihood of them having a disposable vape in their hand is fairly high. More and more adult users are reaching for a disposable vape as a way of quitting nicotine, but also for the convenience factor, as well as wanting to sample the tantalising and well marketed flavours contained within these devices. Unfortunately, the number of underage users is reaching an alarming rate, and there are calls for more to be done to clamp down on this number from rising any further.
In this article, I’m going to explain everything you need to know about disposable vapes, the e-liquid used in them, the damage they are having on the environment, and what can be done to stop underage users from getting hold of them and why disposables are starting to give vaping a bad reputation.
When did disposable vapes first come on to the market?
Disposable vapes were actually the first style of e-cigarettes to hit the market way back in 2003. They were created by Chinese pharmacist Hon Lik in the design of the “Cigalikes” that are still available on today’s market. These are massively different to the disposable vapes that are all the rage today though, as they look like a traditional cigarette and normally only comes in a tobacco flavour.
Around 18 months ago, disposable vapes started being introduced on to the market by different manufacturers in a vast variety of flavours and with a much more aesthetically pleasing design, usually displaying a bright vibrant colour relating to the flavour of the nicotine salt vape juice inside the device. They also come in varying nicotine strengths from 0-20mg.
Elf bar are arguably the leading disposable vape manufacturers and sell an obscene number of devices across the globe. Whilst they are the leading manufacturers, they are also the main target for criticism for their recent marketing tactics of their products which I will go in to more depth a little further down this article.
What is a disposable vape?
Exactly what it says on the box, a vaping device that is disposable once either the juice inside has ran out or the battery has run flat as they are not refillable nor rechargeable.
Within a disposable vaping device, it contains a small wire coil, cotton, a small lithium battery and roughly around 1.3ml of vape juice, normally nicotine salts. The picture below shows a deconstructed disposable vape just to give you a visual on what goes into them.
Due to the fact that these contain a lithium battery, they cannot be recycled and have to be disposed of in the regular waste, resulting in an alarming amount going into landfill every month thus having a huge impact on the environment.
Why Disposable Vapes are bad for the environment.
As stated above, disposable vapes cannot be recycled even though they are made from plastic, and this is due to the fact they contain a small lithium battery that is used to power the device. Therefore, they end up going into landfill, and stats show that roughly 17 million disposable vapes are going into landfill every month, which is a scary figure that I expect is only going to rise in the coming future and the impact they are having on the environment is going to rise with it.
I have written an article which highlights the impact they are having on the environment in more detail.
Are they compliant with TPD?
As with all tobacco/vaping products sold in the UK, they must comply with the regulations set out by the TPD Legislation that came into effect in 2016.
Disposable vapes normally come in a sealed plastic bag, within cardboard box packaging. Packaging must display a clear health warning, and there must be a small leaflet included detailing all necessary health and safety warnings. If you purchase a disposable vape and it’s missing any of these important factors, the likelihood is you’ve got a counterfeit disposable vape device.
Sadly, the amount of counterfeit devices on the UK Market today is high and these are normally sold via online marketplaces or from a non-reputable vape retailer. Trading standards are wading in and clamping down hard on this and have seized tens of thousands of counterfeit disposable vaping devices to date, but there are still far more out there on the market. These counterfeit devices have not had to pass any regulatory checks and could be very harmful to your health if used.
I’ve written an article on the topic of counterfeit disposable vapes and what is being done to combat these being sold on today’s market which you can read by clicking the link
What is the vape juice used in Disposable Vapes?
Nicotine salt vape juice is what is used in disposable vapes and they are normally available in 0mg, 10mg or 20mg Nicotine strengths.
Nicotine salt is a popular vape juice due to the fact that Nicotine salt is faster absorbed into the bloodstream, absorbing in roughly 6 seconds from inhale which is quicker than normal freebase vape juice.
Nearly all of the disposable vapes available on today’s market are manufactured in China, thus resulting in the vape juice used in them is also produced in China.
Unlike the UK, China doesn’t have any regulations in place in regards to the production of vape juice, therefore they have somewhat of a free reign when it comes to production. No testing has to be done, and there aren’t any banned ingredients that cannot be added to vape juice.
This is quite alarming as the regulations on how vape juice is made were bought in to the UK as a way to protect consumers from vaping anything that could be detrimental to their health, like the sweetener Diacetyl which is banned in the UK since the “Popcorn Lung” fiasco of 2016.
All of the vape juices made at Vape69 are fully compliant and meet all necessary regulations set out by the TPD Legislations. So, using our juices, you will know what you are vaping is safe and nothing that shouldn’t be in there has been added.
You can read more about our vape juices and how they are made by clicking this link.
Disposable vapes and young people
As I mentioned at the top of the article, the popularity of disposable vapes has sky rocketed in the last 18 months, seeing more and more people using them every day. Unfortunately, the amount of young people and underage users that are now vaping is at an alarmingly high rate.
A lot of factors surrounding disposable vapes is constituting to the fact young people are using them. The way they are designed by using bright and vibrant colours make them pleasing to the eye, the huge variety of mouth watering flavours of vape juice used in them like cotton candy ice, or blue raspberry ice makes them more appealing than a bog standard tobacco or mint flavour.
The other concern is that these young people who are using disposable vapes haven’t actually previously smoked, and therefore may be creating an unnecessary nicotine addiction if using a disposable vape that contains nicotine.
And the presence of disposable vapes on social media is rife and reaching the younger audiences via these channels.
Elfbar recently came under massive scrutiny for extorting advertising on social media rules, by sending a well-known influencer a large quantity of Elf bars as a “gift” to which the influencer created video content showing off all of these, whilst subliminally advertising these to their followers, of which could be a large amount of young people wanting to then try these.
Conclusion
To conclude this article, I do believe it is time to ditch the disposables as the negative media on them is bringing down vaping and all the hard work it’s taken to bring it up to where it is today.
The harm they’re doing to the environment cannot be ignored either, and something needs to be done to preserve the environment from any further damage.
Check Out Our Instagram Posts
