Flavored types of disposable digital cigarette units are on show in a store in Brussels on Dec. 12, 2024, forward of Belgium’s ban on the sale of disposable vapes as of Jan. 1, 2025.
Geert Vanden Wijngaert/AP
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Geert Vanden Wijngaert/AP
BRUSSELS — Belgium will ban the sale of disposable digital cigarettes as of Jan. 1 on well being and environmental grounds in a groundbreaking transfer for European Union nations.
Well being minister Frank Vandenbroucke stated the cheap e-cigarettes had changed into a well being menace since they’re a simple method for youngsters to be drawn into smoking and get hooked on nicotine.
“Disposable e-cigarettes is a brand new product merely designed to draw new customers,” he stated in an interview.
“E-cigarettes usually comprise nicotine. Nicotine makes you hooked on nicotine. Nicotine is dangerous to your well being. These are reality,” Vandenbroucke added.
As a result of they’re disposable, the plastic, battery and circuits are a burden on the setting. On high of that, “they create hazardous waste chemical compounds nonetheless current in what individuals throw away,” Vandenbroucke stated.
The well being minister stated he additionally focused the disposable e-cigarettes as a result of reusable ones may very well be a software to assist individuals give up smoking if they can’t discover one other method.
Australia outlawed the sale of ” vapes” outdoors pharmacies earlier this yr in a number of the world’s hardest restrictions on digital cigarettes. Now Belgium is main the EU drive.
“We’re the primary nation in Europe to take action,” Vandenbroucke stated.
He desires more durable tobacco measures within the 27-nation bloc.
“We’re actually calling on the European Fee to return ahead now with new initiatives to replace, to modernize, the tobacco laws,” he stated.
There’s understanding about Belgium’s resolution, even in some outlets promoting digital cigarettes, and particularly on the environmental difficulty.
As soon as the cigarette is empty, “the battery remains to be working. That is what is horrible, is that you could possibly recharge it, however you haven’t any method of recharging it,” stated Steven Pomeranc, proprietor of the Brussels Vapotheque store. “So you may think about the extent of air pollution it creates.”
A ban normally means a monetary loss to the trade, however Pomeranc stated he thinks it is not going to harm an excessive amount of.
“We have now quite a lot of different options that are additionally very straightforward to make use of,” he stated. “Like this pod system, that are pre-filled with liquid, which might simply be clipped into the rechargeable e-cigarette. So we are going to merely have a shift of purchasers in the direction of this new system.”
