Petition: Don’t Ban Our Flavoured E-Liquids

Stop the UK Government From Placing an E-Liquid Flavour Ban

If you haven’t heard the current discussions around the vaping industry vs the UK government, you need to buckle up, as it’s just hit the next stage: a local petition to stop the government from banning e-liquid flavours in vapes. 

And we need everyone to sign the petition to stop the government from restricting e-liquid flavours, as we all know they’re a significant reason as to why vaping is one of the best stop smoking aids.

Last month, in January, Rishi Sunak announced a plan to ban disposable vapes, limit sales stands of vaping products in brick-and-mortar store, add a tax to e-liquids, and restrict the flavours of e-liquid to possibly only menthol and tobacco flavours. 

Other than the ban of disposables, the rest of the plans has caused an uproar amongst the vaping community. Over the years, various research studies has underlined the importance of e-liquid flavours in helping ex-smokers to fully quit their habit. 

A survey done by the Consumer Advocates for Smoke-Free Alternatives Association discovered that 72% of respondents credited ‘tasty’ vape flavours for helping them stop smoking cigarettes. The fact that just 10% of respondents were still using tobacco-flavoured e-cigarettes at the end of their first month of switching shows how important it is to have a variety of taste profiles to make the transition more bearable and easy.

The Government’s survey titled ‘Creating a smokefree generation and combating youth vaping’ includes questions about limiting vape flavours. When asked if they should ban vape flavours, 47% agreed, 51% opposed, and 2% answered they didn’t know.

The focus, according to those who agreed, was on fruity and sweet flavours that would appeal to kids or non-smokers. They expressed concern about the potential of children becoming hooked to nicotine and emphasised the relevance of scents as influences. 

Respondents who disagreed expressed concerns about how taste limitations may affect smoking cessation, as well as concerns that banning vape flavours was an overreach by the government.

The timeline so far for these discussions:

• 12th October 2023: The government announced the consultation “Creating a smokefree generation and tackling youth vaping” and responses from the general public opened.
• 6th December 2023: The government’s consultation closed and the answers were collected.
• 28th January 2024: Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, announced the government plans to introduced the numerous steps to tackle youth vaping, including the question of banning flavours.
• 29th January 2024: The responses from the consultation were released, outlining how they plan to tackle it. 
• 14th February 2024: A petition called “Don’t Ban Flavoured E-Liquids for E-Cigarettes” was released, once it reaches 100,000 signatures, the government will consider it for Parliamentary debate.

At Vapoholic, we are 100% committed to stopping this ban from happening, and we urge you to sign this petition and share it with everyone and anyone who has been positively affected by switching to vaping with the abundance of flavour choices.

We need more voices for the government to actually listen to us, banning e-liquid flavours will make vaping less attractive to smokers who are looking to quit rather than stopping vapes from being in the hands of minors.

In 2022, UK scientists evaluated the international research and concluded that “in the short and medium term, vaping poses a small fraction of the risks of smoking“.

Even though the UK government website is publishing evidence that vaping is a safer alternative to smoking cigarettes, they are still planing to ban e-liquid flavours and restrict them to only menthol and tobacco flavours, which will only discourage smokers from switching.

In a ASH Smokefree Survery for adult vapers in 2023 found that 47% of the respondents vaped fruit flavours, while only 12% vaped tobacco flavours. 

This is a vital step in the government vs the vape industry, and we need you to sign the petition and share it so it can reach 100,000 signatures for the government to consider it for debate.

If you have any questions or needing advice on how to quit smoking, do not hestitate to reach out to us for support, we are always here and happy to help!