London, 04.10.2023. – Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Rishi Sunak announced a generational smoking ban and restrictions on vaping aiming to prevent minors from accessing vaping products. The Prime Minister proposed raising the smoking age by one year, every year – meaning that a 14-year-old today will never be legally sold a cigarette – and said he will “bring forward measures to restrict the availability of vapes to our children (…) looking at flavours, packaging, displays and disposable vapes.” 

The World Vapers’ Alliance rejects a generational smoking ban for those born after 2008 as a good smoking reduction tool. While the intent might be to reduce smoking rates among the young, history has shown that bans always have unintended consequences, such as the proliferation of illicit markets. We believe there are more effective approaches to achieving this noble goal.

Michael Landl, director of the World Vapers’ Alliance, commented:

“While we share the ambition to further reduce smoking rates, imposing bans isn’t the answer. We run the risk of creating a booming black market, pushing young adults toward illicit avenues. The UK’s harm reduction strategy has been commendably effective. It’s time to further amplify this approach by endorsing vaping, recognising nicotine pouches, and legalising snus, rather than resorting to bans.”

On the other hand, the World Vapers’ Alliance is concerned about the announcement of restrictions on flavoured vaping products and disposable vapes and encourages the UK to keep its commitment to evidence-based harm reduction strategies and its position as a global leader in this domain.

“Keeping disposable vapes and flavoured products on the market ensures that those wishing to transition away from smoking have every tool at their disposal. Banning flavours risks pushing vapers back to smoking or to the black market, and banning disposable vapes will prevent many smokers from trying vaping to quit. The United Kingdom has reduced smoking rates rapidly thanks to an open approach towards these products, but banning them will revert the progress made. Restrictions should aim to keep the products fully available for adults while away from minors.”

The United Kingdom has recently widely acknowledged vaping as a smoking cessation tool through its “Swap-to-Stop” program, committed to further reducing smoking rates. Due to the high adoption of alternative nicotine products, smoking rates have fallen twice as fast compared to the European Union and are at a record low among both adults and young people, according to the Office for National Statistics. The proposed restrictions threaten to undermine those gains and put the United Kingdom at odds with its own best practices.