Council urges regulation on single use vapes

Councillors have urged the government to impose new regulations governing single-use vapes, amid concern about their rising popularity amongst children and wider worries over the impact of disposable plastics on the environment.

While it is illegal to sell e-cigarettes to under-18s, Independent Councillor Shane P O’Reilly said that children as young as 12 and 13 years old “now go around with vapes”.

It was a “genuine worry” he told the June monthly meeting of elected members. He spoke of a condition called ‘popcorn lung’, claiming users of vapes could develop the condition.

He also noted that vapes contain a myriad of chemicals, and suggested they “put rat poison in them as well”.

“A major clampdown” is needed said Cllr O’Reilly, “similar to how legislation was enacted to tackle the rise of headshops.”

Fianna Fáil’s Áine Smith, a school teacher, said there was already a “huge problem” among young children vaping, and that 107 countries had already banned the sale of disposable vapes and e-cigarettes and “Ireland should follow”.

Her party colleague Clifford Kelly agreed, and said young adults aged 18 were buying vapes and then selling them to younger children.

“There should be a limit on the number anyone can buy,” said Cllr Kelly, who added that more needed to be done to educate people about the growing issue.

Brendan Fay (Ind), a local pub owner, said that representatives of vape companies were “banging on the door” trying to encourage him and others to sell their products.

“There is serious money behind all this,” he observed.

Fine Gael’s TP O’Reilly said the proliferation of vape products was “alarming”, and adding that unless action was taken now it was “going to be a hard one to deal with”.

Winston Bennett (FG) suggested that banning the products outright would simply drive the market “underground” and result in making “millionaires of criminals”.

Others to contribute to the debate included Sinn Féin’s Paddy McDonald, Peter McVitty (FG), Trevor Smith (FG), Philip Brady (FF), and Patricia Walsh (FF).

The latter stated that the statistics are “frightening” about what goes into disposable vapes. As a former smoker she attested as to the difficulty of kicking a habit, and hit out at the past health campaigns that suggested vaping as being “better than smoking cigarettes”.

A decision was taken to write to both the Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly and Minister for Education Norma Foley on the matter.