Six months after the UK’s disposable vape ban, questions remain over its real-world impact. Industry commentator Martin Cullip discusses weak enforcement funding, the rise of illegal sales, growing environmental awareness, and concerns that the ban could undermine smoking cessation and push some users back to cigarettes.
Transcription:
00:14 - 00:30
[Joanna Junak]
Let's now talk about the legislation banning disposable vapes. It's been six months since it came into effect in the UK. What changes have you noticed so far?
00:32 - 01:22
[Martin Cullip]
Well, I don't use disposable vapes myself. I've tried them, obviously, but I know some people who have. And it's split. Some people have gone on to reusable vapes, the refillable ones, which to me look exactly the same as the disposable vapes, but they have to buy pods that go with them. But I do know people who have managed to find disposable vapes on the black market. So some people are selling them. There is talk amongst industry. I know that the industry groups like the IBBTA have said that they've noticed that people are migrating onto refillable products. Their figures have said that. But you also have other groups that say that there's a big black market in them. So I think the jury's out on it at the moment, but I haven't noticed a great deal of difference.
01:23 - 01:26
[Joanna Junak]
And how is this bill being enforced?
01:27 - 03:29
[Martin Cullip]
the the government provided um 10 million pounds towards enforcement but there are 300 uh trading standards organizations or thereabouts in the uk so that only works out to be about 30 000 per per uh trading standards authority which isn't a great deal of money so if you expect if government's expecting trader standards to just be able to keep a lid on this then they've got another thing coming it's it's um it's a woefully small amount of money And as far as I'm aware, that's only a one-off payment of 10 million. That's not every year. So trading standards, when I've spoken to people at trading standards, they're overwhelmed with cases that they have to investigate as it is. So to expect them to just get an extra £30,000 and then manage to keep a lid on a market which has got huge demand, already uh and to be able to sort of clamp down on on illegal sales and and the black market i think that's that's very much wishful thinking i don't i don't think they're going to be have much success so i think everyone's got their work cut out um the supposed ban i think shouldn't have happened anyway it's one thing it's definitely going to do it means that there's no way this country is going to get to our target of smoke three by 2030 because A lot of the increase in people quitting smoking was via disposable vapes, and now they've been banned, or the legal market's been banned. They've banned the legal sale of them, but the illegal sales are not going to be affected. They don't care about if there's a law or not. So who knows what might happen, but... I would hate to be on the other side trying to enforce something like this when there's, like I said, such a huge demand for these products. And there's a big number of people who are quite willing to sell them as well. So we'll have to see. But like I said, it's conflicting reports. So industry is saying people are migrating, but other industry is saying that up to a third of people who were using vapes could migrate back to smoking, which wouldn't be in anyone's interest, really, would it?
03:31 - 03:40
[Joanna Junak]
When the government introduced this kind of bill, it seems they were concerned about environmental or safety issues. Are there any campaigns addressing this?
03:41 - 05:30
[Martin Cullip]
I think the environmental concerns. I think people are understanding those now. I know industry has increasingly taken it seriously and tried to provide a place to recycle these devices. My local council, I can recycle things with my fortnightly refuse pickup. So I think councils are getting hold of it as well. You see in articles on outlets like the BBC talking about how you shouldn't put disposable vapes into the bins because they can cause fires and what have you. So I think people are learning. It's just a shame that they brought this knee-jerk ban on disposable vapes in before they tried the the educational route first because what's going to happen is you're going to get people who are going to just abandon disposable vapes and think i can't be bothered refillable ones or they're too expensive or what have you it's significant that smoking cessation service were the ones that were mostly using disposable vapes to get people to try vapes in the first place and quit smoking so if they haven't got those those um those products available anymore then what what it's almost like the consumers are being abandoned and smokers are being abandoned there will be without doubt a certain number of people who will go back to smoking this there's no doubt about that um which i think some of the anti-smoking groups should have really recognized that and warned government against it but but they they obviously didn't want to get in the government's bad books i expect um but I think the environmental point has been made and is being accepted by people. I think people are understanding that. So that should hopefully reduce that kind of thing. But then, you know, who knows when the illicit market gets hold of these things, they really don't care.
05:31 - 05:46
[Joanna Junak]
Thank you, Martin. That's all for today. Tune in next time here on GFN TV or on our podcast. You can also find transcriptions of each episode on the GFN TV website. Thanks for watching or listening. See you next time.