Responding to the Government’s Creating a smoke free generation consultation, KCC also sets out its support for changes in the law to tackle the rise in young people vaping.
This includes:
- banning the use of cartoons, animals and other child-friendly imagery on vape packaging and devices, and restricting vape flavours, to make them less appealing to under-18s
- keeping vapes behind shop counters and making ‘proxy sales’, the purchasing of tobacco products on behalf of young people under the legal age, illegal
- introducing fixed penalty notices to help local authorities enforce ‘age of sale’ legislation for tobacco products and vapes, and
- applying marketing, advertising and packaging restrictions to any new non-nicotine and nicotine-containing products introduced, such as nicotine pouches and pods, that appeal to children and teenagers.
The Council’s response also backs a ban on disposable vapes “due to public health and environmental concerns”. This mirrors a motion passed at KCC’s Full Council meeting in July, urging both Health and Environment Secretaries of State to scrap disposable devices.
A haul of illegal vape products seized in the Canterbury area by Kent Trading Standards officers working with Kent Police
- To address the gaps in evidence about underage vaping, KCC’s submission also sets out KCC’s Public Health Team plan to conduct a survey to explore the use of nicotine and non-nicotine vapes among Kent secondary school students.
Guidance and information about youth vaping have been shared with schools and made available on the Kent County Council website.
“...while vaping can help adult smokers quit, anyone who doesn’t smoke should not vape. It’s not risk-free and its effects on undeveloped lungs not fully understood.”
Kent County Council Director of Public Health, Dr Anjan Ghosh, said: "The number of Kent smokers continue to fall but smoking is still the leading cause of preventable illness and death, locally and nationally.
"Raising the age of cigarette sales would mean that a child who is 14-years-old today will never be able to be sold a tobacco product legally in their lifetime. By making addictive tobacco products less accessible to young people, delaying the start of smoking and potentially reducing the risk of them starting smoking in the first place, this proposal, if passed, would be the single most important public health legislation in a decade.
"Younger people vaping is also a cause for concern because while vaping can help adult smokers quit, anyone who doesn’t smoke should not vape. It’s not risk-free and its effects on undeveloped lungs not fully understood.
"While national research indicates more than 3 million people now vape in the UK, and e-cigarette use among school-aged children is rising, no regional data is available. It means that as well as supporting Trading Standards’ work to stamp out illicit tobacco and vape products and sales, and ensuring our schools are aware of national guidance about youth vaping, we want to get a clearer picture of vaping among our young people in Kent so we are able to effectively tackle the issue."
“...officers have stopped and seized over 800,000 illegal vapes as they entered the UK at Dover in the past 12 months”
Head of Kent Trading Standards, Steve Rock, said: "The vaping market is very complex and prolific. Working as part of a multi-agency team that includes UK Border Force, officers have stopped and seized over 800,000 illegal vapes as they entered the UK at Dover in the past 12 months.
"We also believe disposable vapes contribute to the increase in underage sales, as well as having a significant impact on the environment.
"In the face of these challenges there’s a lot of good work happening in the county – as we showed the Prime Minister when he visited Kent Scientific Services earlier this year.
"We look forward to seeing what new regulation and enforcement powers come out of the smoke free consultation to help us tackle the illegal tobacco and vape trade in the future."
- Read KCC’s full creating a smoke free generation consultation response (PDF, 208.9 KB)
- Read about Kent Scientific Services trailblazing work in tackling illegal vapes.
- To report illicit vapes, illegal tobacco or underage sales to Kent Trading Standards, contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or online at Crimestoppers.
