Won’t somebody think of the adults?
30 March 2023
SUGGESTED
Government and Institutions
James Forder writes in City AM
30 March 2023
Healthcare
Housing and Planning
Christopher Snowdon writes in Spiked
IEA Head of Lifestyle Economics Christopher Snowdon has written in Spiked criticising reported proposals to ban disposable vapes and crack down on certain sweet flavours.
Christopher wrote:
“On the face of it, the scale of underage vaping does not seem too alarming. The most recent figures are from 2021 and they show that the proportion of secondary-school pupils who have ever tried an e-cigarette was 22 per cent. This is no higher than it was in 2014, although the proportion who said they were regular vapers rose from four per cent to nine per cent in the same period. Of these regular vapers, only one per cent had never smoked a cigarette. In other words, only 0.09 per cent of secondary-school children regularly vape and have never smoked.
“As for smoking, it has virtually disappeared among people under the age of 16. Since vaping became popular in 2012, the proportion of regular smokers aged between 11 and 15 has dropped from four per cent to just one per cent.
“Tinkering with the packaging and colours of e-cigarettes isn’t going to make any difference to youth vaping. Meanwhile, banning disposable vapes and restricting flavours would be actively harmful. If the problem is e-cigarettes being sold to people who are underage, then enforce the law against underage sales. Just don’t ban e-cigarettes for the rest of us.”
Read the full article here.
Christopher wrote:
“On the face of it, the scale of underage vaping does not seem too alarming. The most recent figures are from 2021 and they show that the proportion of secondary-school pupils who have ever tried an e-cigarette was 22 per cent. This is no higher than it was in 2014, although the proportion who said they were regular vapers rose from four per cent to nine per cent in the same period. Of these regular vapers, only one per cent had never smoked a cigarette. In other words, only 0.09 per cent of secondary-school children regularly vape and have never smoked.
“As for smoking, it has virtually disappeared among people under the age of 16. Since vaping became popular in 2012, the proportion of regular smokers aged between 11 and 15 has dropped from four per cent to just one per cent.
“Tinkering with the packaging and colours of e-cigarettes isn’t going to make any difference to youth vaping. Meanwhile, banning disposable vapes and restricting flavours would be actively harmful. If the problem is e-cigarettes being sold to people who are underage, then enforce the law against underage sales. Just don’t ban e-cigarettes for the rest of us.”
Read the full article here.
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