Flavored sorts of disposable digital cigarette gadgets 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 became a well being menace since they’re a simple approach 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 shoppers,” he stated in an interview.
“E-cigarettes typically comprise nicotine. Nicotine makes you hooked on nicotine. Nicotine is dangerous on your well being. These are truth,” Vandenbroucke added.
As a result of they’re disposable, the plastic, battery and circuits are a burden on the atmosphere. On prime of that, “they create hazardous waste chemical substances 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 could possibly be a software to assist individuals give up smoking if they can not discover one other approach.
Australia outlawed the sale of ” vapes” outdoors pharmacies earlier this yr in among 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 harder 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 determination, even in some retailers promoting digital cigarettes, and particularly on the environmental subject.
As soon as the cigarette is empty, “the battery continues to be working. That is what is horrible, is that you would recharge it, however you haven’t any approach of recharging it,” stated Steven Pomeranc, proprietor of the Brussels Vapotheque store. “So you possibly can think about the extent of air pollution it creates.”
A ban often means a monetary loss to the business, however Pomeranc stated he thinks it won’t harm an excessive amount of.
“We’ve numerous 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 shoppers in direction of this new system.”
