BRUSSELS: Belgium has become the first European Union (EU) country to ban disposable e-cigarettes, widely popular for their wide variety of flavors, with the ban starting on January 1, 2025.
From New Year’s Eve, the sale of single-use vapes will be banned in Belgium, in a bid to protect the health of young people as part of a national anti-tobacco plan.
The European Union aims to achieve a tobacco-free generation by 2040, reducing the 27-nation bloc’s smoking population from 25 percent to less than 5 percent of the total.
Some EU countries plan to bring this deadline forward.
Vapes are often touted as less harmful than smoking traditional tobacco products.
They attract young consumers with their colorful packaging and the promise of mouth-watering flavors and the benefit of avoiding the unpleasant smell of smoke on the fingers.
But because e-cigarettes still contain nicotine, which is highly addictive, critics fear they could be a potential stepping stone to more traditional tobacco products.
“The problem is that young people start using vapes without knowing their nicotine content, and nicotine is addictive,” said Nora Maillard, spokeswoman for the Alliance of Tobacco Free Society in Belgium.
“We have young people say they wake up at night to take a puff,” he said. AFP. “It’s very disturbing.”
Belgium claims it has reacted quickly to the dangers posed by disposable e-cigarettes, which hit the market more than five years ago.
In 2021, the federal government submitted a proposal to the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, to ban single-use vapes.
The commission, which must give its approval for any sales ban, gave Belgium the green light in March 2024, paving the way for the national law to come into force.
France has secured EU approval for a similar ban.
Once in force, the French law will ban the production, sale and free offer of vapes, with a fine of 100,000 euros ($104,000) for any violation.
Environmental disaster
Health officials in France and Belgium say chronic nicotine use is particularly harmful to the brain of teenagers and can encourage the use of other drugs.
A 2023 EU study found that the majority of e-cigarette users chose rechargeable vapes, but single-use versions were popular among 15- to 24-year-olds.
Easy to use and advertised everywhere on social media, disposable vapes are also attractive due to their low cost.
At five or six euros, a single-use vape is half the price of a 20-pack of cigarettes. Some allow up to 9,000 puffs, the equivalent of more than 300 cigarettes, according to experts.
Many Brussels tobacco shops are running out of single-use e-cigarettes, as renewal is impossible.
“I don’t understand why vaping is banned and not tobacco, which is also dangerous,” said Ilyas Ratabi, a young user. AFP.
Others welcome the ban.
“I think it’s good to stop selling it,” said Yuna Bojniak in central Brussels.
“There are a lot of young people who start without necessarily thinking about the consequences,” he said.
Opponents also point to the “environmental destruction” caused by disposable vapes.
When seeking EU approval to ban it, Belgium argued that the single-use plastic vape with its lithium battery is usually thrown away within five days of purchase.
In contrast, rechargeable versions can last for about six or seven months.