![]() ![]() ![]() He added: “Disposable e-cigarettes grew rapidly in popularity throughout 2022 and can be a highly profitable commodity for retailers, which in turn leads to some seeking a competitive edge by stocking illegal products.” Oliver Jewell, the council’s principal trading standards officer, said e-cigarette devices “play a legitimate part in the efforts to reduce smoking prevalence figures”. Kent county council seized 329,276 illicit vapes in 2022 and has seized 49,528 in 2023 so far. There is nothing illegal about transporting goods across borders, but they are illegal to sell,” said Jenkins. “They are not hidden or smuggled in but brought in openly, and people pay import duties. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. For more information see our Privacy Policy. Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. He said officials had confiscated about 6 tonnes of illegal vapes this week, and so the FoI figures for Hillingdon were already out of date. Jenkins said businesses were factoring in that some vapes would be intercepted, so would over-order. “They are declared as atomisers on the paperwork but when they come through we can see in the packaging they will have a battery warning and say they are vapes.” Phil Jenkins, a senior London Trading Standards officer who oversaw the seizure of 1m illegal vapes at Heathrow last year, said they came in on commercial flights as standard cargo. He said they could be spotted by how many puffs they advertise, as anything offering more than 500-700 has usually “not been through the appropriate testing and safety measures”. The vaping industry is also calling for stronger enforcement of regulations and for illegal vaping products to be treated as seriously as counterfeit cigarettes.ĭan Marchant, the director of the retailer Vape Club, said illicit vape products “have the potential to be dangerous”. “We know that legal compliant vapes pose a fraction of the risk of smoking but we do not know what the risk is from illegal vapes,” she said. Pike said that illegal vapes often did not have the right warnings or information on their packaging. “The main concern is that young people are getting their hands on these products … We do not want children or adults getting addicted to something at all like this,” she said. “There is a significant number of illegal products on the market, which does not help when we are trying to support the public health response, which is to ensure the products are much safer than tobacco for smokers looking to quit. “We don’t need sniffer dogs to find these products as they are all on shelves in high-street shops, in full view of the public,” Pike said. Pike said non-compliant vapes were particularly popular with underage consumers – because they were cheap and could be bought in places that were less likely to check ID – and that research showed a third of products sold in UK shops were likely to be illegal. In 2022, 7% of 11- to 17-year-olds surveyed said they used vapes, compared with 3.3% in 2021. There is rising concern over youth vaping in Britain, with the latest survey by Action on Smoking and Health (Ash) showing a rise in recent years. They are mainly coming from China.”ĭoctors have called for an outright ban on disposable vapes – which come in bright colours and a variety of flavours – to reduce their popularity among young people as the long-term impact remains unknown. She said: “I get calls from colleagues at the port almost every day – it feels like there is a tsunami. ![]() Kate Pike, the lead officer at the Chartered Trading Standards Institute, warned that the figures are likely to be the “tip of the iceberg” in terms of how many non-compliant vapes are being sold in UK shops. ![]()
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