The UK High Street’s current biggest threat are shops selling illegal vapes to children.
It was recently found that there is a concern about the brightly colored pens ending up in the hands of 12 and 13 year old children, as hundreds of thousands of illegal vapes were seized. 60% of Trading Standard officers said that their biggest worries were the sale of illegal and unsafe vapes to under- 18s*.
It’s mostly small convenience and mobile phone shops that are found to be selling these illegal vaping products. Some vapes have been found to contain 12,000 puffs of e-liquid, when legally vapes are supposed to contain 600. With twice as many puffs, their purpose of helping people to quit smoking is slowly becoming useless.
Whilst the long-term effects of vaping are currently unknown, people who use vapes are twice as likely to develop a chronic cough from vaping than non-users. Vaping may also reduce the lungs’ ability to function and lower your immunity levels, which can leave a user more exposed to the risk of a respiratory infection**.Therefore counterfeit vapes, which can contain up to 100mg of nicotine, just 25g less than the equivalent of 10 cigarettes, could cause a significant amount of damage to the children and young adults they are being targeted at.
It’s important that if you use vapes, you check that they fit the legal requirements as below*:
- 2ml maximum tank size
- 20mg/ml (or 2%) highest nicotine strength
- 600 number of puffs
- 10ml maximum refill bottle
If you want to start your journey to a smoke-free future, find out more about our Stop Smoking Service here or call Fitter Futures today on 0333 005 0092.
*https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-64319417
** https://lordslibrary.parliament.uk/vaping-among-teens-a-growing-trend/
