Tag: Scotland

  • Scotland Welcomes Proposed U.K. Ban

    Scotland Welcomes Proposed U.K. Ban

    Image: boygostockphoto

    Scotland Public Health Minister Jenni Minto has welcomed proposed legislation to ban tobacco sales to anyone born after Jan. 1, 2009, and allow for tougher measures on vaping.

    The proposed legislation, which is U.K.-wide, would gradually increase the age of sale, making it illegal to sell tobacco products to anyone born on or after Jan. 1, 2009. The bill also includes powers to regulate displays, contents, flavors and retail packaging of vapes and nicotine products, allowing restrictions to target flavors marketed at children and to move vapes out of sight of children and away from products like sweets, according to the Scottish government.

    The legislation will also remove existing provisions making it illegal for those under the age of 18 to purchase tobacco products.

    The government previously published proposals to ban the sale and supply of single-use vapes, which, if agreed upon by the Parliament, would come into effect April 1, 2025.

    “Scotland has been a world-leader on a range of tobacco control measures, and while there has been a steady reduction in the proportion of people smoking, we know it still damages lives and kills more than 8,000 people a year in Scotland,” said Minto. “Smoking is a huge burden on our NHS [National Health Service] and social care services and contributes significantly to health inequalities, which is why our goal is for a tobacco-free Scotland by 2034.

    “Research suggests that almost one in five young people have tried vaping, and we’re particularly concerned about how flavors are used as an enticement to children and young people.

    “We will now consider how to use these powers, if passed by Westminster, with the consent of the Scottish Parliament, to benefit public health. We will continue our four-nations approach to avoid any unnecessary regulatory divergence and to offer more certainty for business and consistency for consumers. Powers on vapes will be taken forward following further consultation and engagement.

    “In addition, we were the first government to commit to taking action on single-use vapes and have now fulfilled our 2023 Program for Government commitment to consult on measures to tackle the environmental impact of single-use vapes.”

    In accordance with the Sewel Convention, the bill will require the legislative consent of the Scottish Parliament.

  • Scotland to Ban Single-Use Vapes

    Scotland to Ban Single-Use Vapes

    Photo: Artem/md3d

    The sale and supply of single-use vapes in Scotland will be banned effective April 1, 2025, under new proposed legislation.

    The recommendation to ban single-use vapes follows a consultation on “Creating a Smoke-Free Generation and Tackling Youth Vaping” that ran across Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland last year.

    The legislation uses the powers of the Environmental Protection Act of 1990. Each nation would need to pass separate legislation banning the sale and supply of single-use vapes, but the governments have agreed on an effective date for the ban.

    “Legislating to ban the sale and supply of single-use vapes fulfills a program for government commitment to reduce vaping among nonsmokers and young people and take action to tackle their environmental impact,” said Lorna Slater, circular economy minister. “The public consultation demonstrated that there is strong support for tougher action on vaping. From causing fires in waste facilities to more than 26 million disposable vapes being consumed and thrown away in Scotland in the past year, single-use vapes are a threat to our environment as well as to our public health.

    “These proposed changes to the law demonstrate our absolute commitment to further improve the well-being of communities and protecting our beautiful natural environment.”

    Proponents of single-use vapes have expressed disappointment with the legislation.

    “The banning of the very devices that have proved to be so successful in helping record numbers of adult smokers quit will result in serious unintended consequences,” the U.K. Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA) wrote in a press release. “The direct consequences of this ill-thought-out ban will see smoking deaths rise as smokers who have successfully transitioned to vaping reluctantly return to cigarettes with all the health harms, losses to the economy and burden on the NHS [National Health System] this will bring in its wake.”

    “Neither will this ban deal with the problem of youth uptake of vaping, which is one of the core aims of this legislation,” the UKVIA went on. “In fact, all the signs point to it actually having exactly the opposite effect as criminal gangs will move in to fill the huge gap in the regulated market with potentially dangerous black market single-use vapes.”

    Instead of the proposed ban, the UKVIA stated that the solution is “enforcing the existing laws, which make it a criminal offense to sell vapes to under-18s.”

    The draft legislation is open for consultation until March 8.

  • Scotland Targets Disposable Vapes

    Scotland Targets Disposable Vapes

    Image: Tobacco Reporter archive

    The first minister of Scotland has announced a consultation on a government plan to curb the sale of single-use vapes, reports the BBC.

    “In the next year, we will take action to reduce vaping—particularly among children,” said Humza Yousaf, adding that one of the options under consideration was a complete ban on disposable e-cigarettes.

    A recent Scottish government report found that 22 percent of all under-18s—around 78,000 people—are believed to have used a vape last year, with more young people using them than smoking cigarettes.

    It found that most e-cigarette users under 18 prefer single-use vapes.

    The review by Zero Waste Scotland estimated that up to 2.7 million single-use vapes were littered in Scotland last year. The study estimated that there were 543,000 users of e-cigarettes in Scotland and predicted that without intervention, that will rise to 900,000 by 2027.

    Scotland joins several countries such as France that are considering a ban on disposables.

  • Poor Scots Spend Nearly Third of Income on Tobacco: Study

    Poor Scots Spend Nearly Third of Income on Tobacco: Study

    Photo: Stephen Davies

    Poorer households in Scotland spend almost a third of their income on tobacco, reports Daily Record, citing a study by Action on Smoking and Health.

    Analysis by the health group shows that the country’s lowest income group will spend a whopping 29.4 percent of their income on tobacco products in 2023—about nine times more than the 3.35 percent estimated to be spent by households in the highest income group.

    The research also estimates that households in the lowest income group containing at least two smokers will spend more than £6,000 ($7,129), or 73.5 percent of income, on tobacco in 2023.

    “Tobacco is a major cause of inequalities, and the projected figures for 2023 we are releasing today spotlight the increasing need for NHS Quit Your Way services in Scotland to be better resourced and promoted to support people to leave tobacco behind, especially in communities facing the greatest challenges,” ASH Scotland CEO Sheila Duffy was quoted as saying.

    In response to its findings, ASH Scotland called for increased smoking cessation support in communities experiencing deprivation.

  • Calls for Scotland to Ban Disposables

    Calls for Scotland to Ban Disposables

    Image: ArieStudio | Adobe Stock

    A lawmaker in Scotland is calling for a ban on disposable vapes “after Scotland’s streets became a plastic dumping ground,” reports the Daily Record.

    Gillian Mackay of the Scottish Green Party said city parks have become clogged up by disposable plastic vaping products, which experts say are a threat to children’s health and a menace to wildlife, and she will urge the government to introduce a ban on disposable plastic vapes.

    Mackay warned that the single-use devices were turning up more and more on streets and in beach clean-ups—and claimed they could become “the cotton bud of their time.”

    The call comes after the Scottish government last year banned most types of single-use plastics as part of efforts to shift to a “circular economy” with fewer items wasted. However, last year’s measure excluded disposable e-cigarettes, which have seen a 14-fold increase in use compared with more eco-friendly rechargeable products.

    Mackay recently also called for a ban on flavored vaping products and all advertising for vaping products.

    Research last year found that 1.3 million single-use vapes are being discarded every week in the U.K., enough to cover 22 football pitches—an average of two thrown away every second.

    Recycling the products is tricky as inside the plastic are valuable lithium batteries. Campaigners say the number of batteries chucked away would be enough to power 1,200 electric cars.

  • Scotland May Consider Display Ban for Vapes

    Scotland May Consider Display Ban for Vapes

    Credit: Paolo Giovanni

    A lawmaker in Scotland wants to ban the public display of e-cigarettes in retail shops. Scottish Greens MSP Gillian Mackay wants retailers to treat them in the same way as cigarettes and hide them from view.

    “This is beyond the days of smoking behind the bike sheds—this is a multi-million industry leading the nation’s health down a path to disaster,” Mackay said. “It is a ticking time bomb, and, until we know more, that’s not a risk I or anyone else should be asked to accept.”

    She has written to shops and vape manufacturers ahead of taking her campaign to the Scottish Parliament, according to the Daily Record.

    Mackay, the Green Party’s health spokesman, said there is growing concern that the number of underage people being attracted by “deliberately sweet-toothed tactics” to market products is spiraling.

    She is calling on retailers to lead by example by writing to them urging that they hide the products from view.

  • Scots Urged to Rethink Vape Ad Restrictions

    Scots Urged to Rethink Vape Ad Restrictions

    Photo: jazrotorman

    The U.K. Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA) has called on the Scottish government to reconsider its proposal to tighten advertising restrictions on vaping.

    The call follows the publication of the outcomes of the government’s consultation on the plan. According to the UKVIA, the feedback from the consultation, which involved the input of individuals, local authorities, public health organizations and the vaping community, clearly shows that there is no majority of support for the recommendations put forward by the government, instead dividing opinions and leaving more questions than answers on the future of vaping regulations.

    At the time the consultation went live, the UKVIA warned that the Scottish government’s proposals could derail the country’s 2034 smoke-free ambitions and that its stance is “in denial of the facts,” creating a significant risk to the health of people of Scotland looking to quit smoking as well as more uncertainty around vaping caused by misinformation.”

    The proposals that were put forward only sought to further conflate vaping with combustible tobacco products by aligning advertising and promotion rules to existing restrictions on tobacco products.

    John Dunne, director general, UKVIA

    The UKVIA’s position was echoed by the Scottish Grocer’s Federation, which stated that the Scottish government’s move was unjustified and failed to appreciate the potential benefits of vaping products.

    Many proposals put forward by the government generated 50-50 responses, and a number resulted in more respondents disagreeing than agreeing with them. These included proposals to ban in-store promotional displays, to make free distribution and nominal pricing of vaping products an offense and to make sponsorship agreements in respect to vaping products an offense. A higher proportion of respondents indicated that the proposed policy would have a negative impact on individuals (50.5 percent who felt it would versus 36.9 percent who didn’t) and on those with socioeconomic disadvantages (48.6 percent versus 25.5 percent).

    “The proposals that were put forward only sought to further conflate vaping with combustible tobacco products by aligning advertising and promotion rules to existing restrictions on tobacco products,” said John Dunne, director general of the UKVIA, in a statment.

    “Only by working with others, following the evidence and listening to people’s testimonies can we succeed in the goal of tobacco harm reduction.

  • Smoke-hos banned

    Smoke-hos banned

    Employees of a Scottish council have been banned from tobacco smoking during the working day, according to a story in The Scotsman.
    Dundee City Council said its revised smoking policy would encourage staff to quit and reduce the number of adult ‘role models’ seen with cigarettes in public.
    However, The Scotsman said it was unclear how the policy would work in practice given the council had been unable to answer questions about what would constitute a breach of the rules.
    And the trade union, Unison, which represents council staff, said it had not agreed to the policy.
    A Dundee City Council spokeswoman said the council had revised its smoking policy because it was working to protect the health of employees and promote positive health messages across the wider community, in line with an agreed Our People Strategy and health and wellbeing framework.
    A key part of that approach involves discouraging children and young people from taking up smoking. “One way to assist that is to reduce the number of adult ‘role models’ who can be seen smoking,” she was quoted as saying.
    The council said the policy mirrored recent changes brought into effect by other councils and by NHS [National Health Service] Tayside.
    It said there had been ‘detailed discussion’ with trade unions.
    But a spokesman for Unison said it had not been consulted fully.
    “There are clear aspects of this policy we could not agree to,” he said.
    “We are usually very supportive of anti-smoking policies. However, people who do smoke need to be able to take breaks and get support from their employer to help them give up.”

  • Quitting made easier

    Quitting made easier

    In a study of adult smokers in Scotland given a blu PRO vaping device and liquids, more than a third completely switched to vaping while the others significantly reduced their average smoking frequency, according to a press note by Imperial Brands’ Fontem Ventures subsidiary.
    A new peer-reviewed study funded by Fontem Ventures and published in the Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health of 72 adult smokers willing to try vaping as an alternative to smoking found that after 90 days, 37 percent of them had completely replaced their cigarettes and switched to Fontem Ventures’ blu vaping products.
    “Our data show that it is possible to facilitate significant behavioural change on the part of smokers as a result of providing them with access to high quality e-cigarette products, at least for a short period of time,” said Professor Neil McKeganey, director of the Centre for Substance Use Research, who conducted the study.
    The 72 adult smokers were given access to the blu PRO open system e-cigarette and a range of commercially available blu flavors and nicotine strengths through the duration of the study.
    After 90 days the researchers found:

    • 36.5 percent of the participants had switched to vaping completely;
    • A reduction in daily smoking from 88.7 percent of participants at baseline to 17.5 percent;
    • A reduction in cigarette smoking from an average of 14.38 to an average of 3.19 per day;
    • A decrease in the average number of days per month that participants smoked, from 27.87/30 at baseline to 9.22/30 days after 90-days.
    • Non-tobacco flavor e-liquids were preferred by the majority of participants.

    ‘The number of smokers who switched to vaping completely increased from baseline to day-30 and continued to rise throughout the study duration (90 days),’ the note said. ‘The finding suggests that the use of vaping products may have additional benefits with longer use – i.e. a proportion of smokers completely switched within the first month of use, but a larger proportion needed more than two months to make the switch and gradually switch over a longer period.’
    “All participants found the flavors used were important in helping them to switch or cut down and 92.1 percent believed that the blu PRO had helped them to cut down or replace smoking completely at 90 days,” said McKeganey.
    Meanwhile, Dr Grant O’Connell, corporate affairs manager, at Fontem Ventures said that in contrast to these “impressive results”, licensed nicotine replacement therapies had been shown to be substantially less satisfying to smokers as evidenced by their modest efficacy, in some cases less than 15 percent smoking abstinence after three months use.
    “The 40 percent of UK smokers who have not even tried an e-cigarette should be encouraged to try products such as blu as an alternative to smoking. It is also clear from the data that vapers who continue to smoke, termed dual users, are undergoing a longer-term transition from smoking to non-smoking, moving through different stages of use that are not evident in snapshot surveys,” said O’Connell.
    The study can be downloaded here.

  • Vaping outlet for inmates

    Vaping outlet for inmates

    Prisoners who smoke are to be offered free vaping kits as Scotland’s jails prepare to go tobacco-free later this year, according to a story by Reevel Alderson for BBC Online.
    The initiative, which will cost about £200,000, is part of a program to help inmates give up smoking.
    Vaping kits will be issued from the start of November, before the ban comes into force at the end of the month.
    For two months, the kits will be provided free of charge. They will then be sold at a discounted rate until April, after which prisoners will have to pay the normal price.
    The Alderson story said it was believed that more than 70 percent of Scotland’s prison inmates smoked: a much higher rate than that within the general population. Among female inmates, the story said, the figure could be as high as 95 percent.
    Smoking in enclosed public places was banned in Scotland in 2006, but the ban did not apply to prisons. Inmates have been permitted to smoke in their cells and some outside spaces.
    But a year ago the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) announced plans to make prisons completely smoke-free.
    The Scottish Conservative justice spokesman Liam Kerr said it was right to offer some transitional help for inmates, but that the cost should also be considered. “This is a cost to the public purse at the end of the day, but they have time limited it,” he was quoted as saying.
    “I think that has to be the right thing to do. To say we will help you transition off smoking, but after that the public shouldn’t be shelling out to help you transition away.”