Local Green Party councillors are increasingly concerned that despite changes in the law vapes are still being discarded as litter after a single use.
Councillor Colin Lay, lead member for Stowmarket in the Greens’ Mid Suffolk District Council administration, said:
“Manufacturers have engineered designs within the technical details of the new refillable legislation to produce vapes at throwaway prices. As long as vapes continue to become litter they create an additional fire risk as they move through waste processing. We have seen huge fires and smaller incidents which endanger workers and the public.”
In addition the cheap vapes are still being marketed to teenagers with immediate harm to health and the risk of recruiting some to the tobacco smoking market. Councillors understand that the packaging and marketing aspects are being addressed through trading standards but this will take time. Regulations on packaging and flavours are expected to be implemented in the near future. If a flavour ban were implemented, flavours would likely be restricted to tobacco, mint, menthol and simple fruits.