Shopkeepers should embrace disposable vapes ban as consensus grows, Green MSP claims

Aug 18, 2023

Retailers should get behind calls to curb the polluting gadgets by putting them behind counters out of reach of kids, Gillian Mackay said.

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Shopkeepers need to get behind the "growing consensus" for a ban on disposable vapes by sticking the polluting gadgets behind screens, a Green MSP has said.

Gillian Mackay, who backs the Daily Record's campaign to outlaw single-use vapes, said a ban is "badly needed".

But ahead of the outcome of a Scottish Government review, she said retailers should in the meantime ensure kids aren't picking the products up off shelves by putting them behind the counter like cigarettes.

The Scottish Greens’ health spokeswoman also urged shops to raise awareness of the legal purchase age of 18 and clearly advertise return points to stem massive levels of vapes litter.

It comes after Mackay joined the Daily Record for a vapes litter pick in Falkirk on Monday to mark World Environment Day - where, over an hour, we found a piece of e-cigs litter roughly once every 50 seconds.

Meanwhile, Scotland's leading child doctors have become the latest group calling for disposable devices to be banned amid fears over the health impacts of the teen vaping craze.

Mackay said: "Disposable vapes create a huge amount of waste. You can see it on every high street in the country. They are bad for our environment and for our health.

"I am delighted to see such strong and growing consensus against them, and look forward to working with the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) and others to ensure that we can introduce the ban that is so badly needed.

"In the meantime, there are lots of steps that retailers can already take, such as ensuring that they are hidden from public view, like cigarettes, and highlighting how and where they can be responsibly disposed of in store."

Speaking to BBC Radio Scotland, the Central Scotland MSP also claimed candy-flavoured and colourful e-cigs were being marketed at kids.

She said: "I was litter-picking yesterday with the Daily Record and one of (the vapes we found) was Skittles-flavoured.

"Now, I don't know how the vaping industry can claim that is not targeted at children."

Our Bin The Vapes campaign, raised by Mackay at Holyrood in January, led the Scottish Government to launch an urgent review into disposable brands including a possible ban which is expected to report back this month.

We told yesterday how volunteers have picked up a staggering 500 vapes chucked away on a single beach in Irvine, Ayrshire, amid last week's sunny weather.

Disposables contain chemicals hazardous for wildlife while the precious lithium batteries inside can ignite and spark fires.

It comes as the RCPCH has backed a ban and warned single-use vapes risk hooking a new generation on nicotine.

The medical body said that since vapes have only been on sale since 2007, long-term studies into their impact on health don't exist yet - particularly on the effects on young lungs, hearts and brains.

Recent figures showed a shocking one in ten Scots aged 15 regularly vape.

Dr Kenneth Macleod, consultant respiratory paediatrician at Edinburgh Children's Hospital, told the BBC: "Young people are taking it up as a recreational activity - they're not using it to quit smoking, they're using it because it looks fun and it tastes nice.

"But the worry is that because of the nicotine content, once they start, they can't stop."

He added: "There's some evidence that says e-cigarettes do cause lung inflammation."

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