Yesterday (17 April) John Dunne, Director General, UKVIA joined an Environment APPG (All Party Parliamentary Group) panel discussion in Westminster with: Government Minister, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at DEFRA, Rebecca Pow; MPs, Dr. Caroline Johnson and Selaine Saxby; and environmental experts Libby Peake (Green Alliance), Laura Young (Climate Campaigner) and Alexandra Heal (Financial Times).
The Minister noted the intrinsic value of vaping to help people stop smoking and reiterated two Government priorities:preventing youth access and maximising the opportunity of vaping to help people quit. On the question of whether single-use vapes should be banned, she said that much more should and could be done before considering a ban, “let’s make sure the things we’ve already got in place are working first”.
Speaking on behalf of the industry, John outlined the extensive work done by the UKVIA to date, on how to tackle youth access to vaping, as well as what the industry was doing to meet the environmental challenges of vape products. John also raised the value of UKVIA as a convening force, having already brought leading academics and experts together with the industry to discuss these issues at the UKVIA Environment Summit last month.
John stressed that the industry fully recognised the part it has to play in finding effective solutions, but that also there was a need for all parties to work together to agree the best way forward. Banning single-use vapes would not help the hundreds of people who die daily from smoking-related illnesses and there is plenty that can, and must, be done to cut down on environmental waste.