Embracing flavoured vapes will contribute to a phasing out of tobacco sales.
Vapers welcome the passing of the Bill to prohibit the sale of vapes to under 18s. They believe it will go a long way to prevent teens having access to vapes.
Respect Vapers, which represents adults who vape, says that this new legislation, if it is properly policed, will be effective in preventing teens having access to vapes.
To date, over 300,000 adults have quit smoking or are trying to quit smoking with the help of vapes. If the Government banned sales to under 18s in the original legislation back in 2016, vapers believe that a further 50,000 additional smokers would have stopped smoking.
According to Respect Vapers, the Government must embrace the benefits of flavoured vaping to quit smoking. The results of the Healthy Ireland survey, published in November 2023, clearly shows that vaping is the most successful tool to help adults quit smoking.
The survey also shows that vaping is NOT a gateway to cigarette smoking, as there has been no increase in the number of smokers in Ireland since 2021/2022.
Flavoured vapes are important for adult smokers as they help them move away from the taste of tobacco and keep off cigarettes. EU research shows that 95% of vapers use at least one non-tobacco flavour.
Ken Heffernan, who quit with the help of vapes said: “As a former smoker, I know that willpower is essential in our efforts to quit. However, it is heartening to see that the survey confirms that a quarter of those who quit used vapes to do so.
“Vapes were found to be the most successful quit smoking aid after willpower alone. 25% of smokers use vapes to successfully quit smoking, well ahead of the 19% who said they used one or other of the nicotine replacement therapies including gums, sprays and patches,” he said.
Embracing the benefits of vaping and the introduction of the legislation, prohibiting the sale of vapes to under 18s, will contribute to a Tobacco Free Ireland.
