Single-use vapes should be banned for the amount of waste alone. We're going to regret sending so much lithium to landfill (or worse, littered on the floor), when you consider how much we're going...
Single-use vapes should be banned for the amount of waste alone. We're going to regret sending so much lithium to landfill (or worse, littered on the floor), when you consider how much we're going to need to power actually useful stuff.
Donna Ferguson Single-use vapes Wastage Child friendly packaging of 2% nicotine products Prof Andrew Bush, a consultant paediatric chest physician at Royal Brompton and Harefield hospitals, said:...
Donna Ferguson
Single-use vapes
Ministers are reportedly poised to ban single-use vapes, after a series of calls from councils, leading paediatricians and public waste campaigners to make selling the disposable devices illegal on health and environmental grounds.
The move could come next week after the government concluded the products are overwhelmingly aimed at children, who then become addicted. It is due to be revealed in a consultation issued by the Department of Health and Social Care next week, though timings could alter, according to the Daily Telegraph.
Wastage
Last week, the Guardian revealed that 5 million single-use vapes are being thrown away in the UK every week, a fourfold increase on 2022. Research by the not-for-profit organisation Material Focus said this amounted to eight vapes a second being discarded, with the lithium in the products enough to create 5,000 electric car batteries a year.
Child friendly packaging of 2% nicotine products
Child respiratory doctors criticised the government last year for failing to heed warnings about the risks of allowing e-cigarettes to be sold in child-friendly packaging containing the names of popular sweet treats – including banana milkshake and jelly babies, both of which contain 2% nicotine, the highest concentration allowed in the UK.
Prof Andrew Bush, a consultant paediatric chest physician at Royal Brompton and Harefield hospitals, said: “I am concerned that we are sleepwalking into a public health catastrophe with a generation of children hooked on nicotine.”
Scott Butler, the executive director at Material Focus, said that the “problem with single-use vapes has gotten further out of control” over the past year. “Single-use vapes are a strong contender for being the most environmentally wasteful, damaging and dangerous consumer product ever made,” he said.
Prohibition and bans
Britain is lagging behind the rest of the world in addressing the issue. Australia has banned all vaping without a prescription, Germany prohibited flavoured e-cigarettes and New Zealand outlawed most disposable vapes and put curbs on marketing to children. Earlier this month, France also announced it is planning to ban all disposable e-cigarettes.
Should adults make the decision for children? Will that not be considered impinging on a child's right to choose?Should the children be left to decide for themselves after being informed about consequences by printing a statutory warning on the product?
Is this a serious question? We accept almost universally that children don't have the right to choose to join the army, get married, get a tattoo, buy alcohol, see unhealthy foods advertised with...
Should adults make the decision for children? Will that not be considered impinging on a child's right to choose?Should the children be left to decide for themselves after being informed about consequences by printing a statutory warning on the product?
Is this a serious question? We accept almost universally that children don't have the right to choose to join the army, get married, get a tattoo, buy alcohol, see unhealthy foods advertised with cartoon characters. Why should vaping be any different?
We've had a law that kids under 18 can't buy smokes for a while now, that's exactly what it should be for all nicotine products. That's not even touching on the environmental insanity of these...
We've had a law that kids under 18 can't buy smokes for a while now, that's exactly what it should be for all nicotine products.
That's not even touching on the environmental insanity of these bloody things. The memes of "We get it bro, you vape" was at least reusing the same equipment. These one use things you see strewn over pavements and in hedges and verges when people are done with them.
Health concerns aside, it is an utterly criminal waste of resources, not least because the batteries in them are normal lithium-ion rechargeable batteries that could be recharged 500+ times....
These one use things you see strewn over pavements and in hedges and verges when people are done with them.
Health concerns aside, it is an utterly criminal waste of resources, not least because the batteries in them are normal lithium-ion rechargeable batteries that could be recharged 500+ times. Instead, they're thrown out after one use and never recharged. I've taken to picking them up and extracting the batteries for my own projects, but very few people have the need/tools for such a process, so they just end up in landfill (or ditches).
It's absolutely not. Those things take any excuse you give them to start a lithium fire in your living room. Those are fun, because you generally can't really put them out with water. Excuses to...
One assumes it's relatively safe?
It's absolutely not. Those things take any excuse you give them to start a lithium fire in your living room. Those are fun, because you generally can't really put them out with water.
Excuses to start combustion include, but are not limited to:
over-voltage by charging to long
under-voltage by running completely empty
charging with to much current
short-circuiting, for example by accidentally misplacing on of the tiny metal ribbons used to connect multiple cells (the ribbon immediately gets welded into place by the current drawn)
drawing current or dumping current into a cell that is to warm
any of the above accidentally happening to one of several cells connected in series, which can happen quickly if you work with cells that are not exactly identical
damaging a cell in any other way, often by dropping them
Working with lithium cells is fun, but you need to know what you're doing. Constantly watching voltages, currents and temperatures (as in, actually having sensors measuring them for the entire pack, ideally for every single cell) is not optional. It's not unusual to have the all cells in a box while experimenting or charging, with a bag of sand ready to bury the cells in case things turn hot.
That first line has truly made my day. Just the idea of sentient batteries just waiting to proper fuck your day up... well, because. "I'M TOO HOT! GET HIM!" I did think that. Friend of mine is a...
It's absolutely not. Those things take any excuse you give them to start a lithium fire in your living room. Those are fun, because you generally can't really put them out with water.
That first line has truly made my day. Just the idea of sentient batteries just waiting to proper fuck your day up... well, because.
"I'M TOO HOT! GET HIM!"
I did think that. Friend of mine is a very high up engineer in the FAANG world and her response was "I really enjoy you being the whole person you are... sans burns" when I asked ha.
You have to be at least 18 years old to buy vapes in the UK anyway. Supposedly teens still have no problem getting their hands on them. To be honest vaping is MUCH better for you than cigarettes,...
You have to be at least 18 years old to buy vapes in the UK anyway. Supposedly teens still have no problem getting their hands on them.
To be honest vaping is MUCH better for you than cigarettes, and you still see teens smoking cigs outside school, never see the government cracking down on that though.
That said single use plastics and electronics are pretty terrible, so regulating them seems like a good idea.
I vape myself (to quit smoking) and I find it an effective tool, the NHS says it's safer, but my own experience says the ability to reduce the nicotine strength as you wish is a very effective...
I vape myself (to quit smoking) and I find it an effective tool, the NHS says it's safer, but my own experience says the ability to reduce the nicotine strength as you wish is a very effective method of tapering.
All of that being said, disposable (1 or 2 day use?) lithium batteries are a blight, just make them refillable and put a charging port on it. Obviously they won't sell as many which I assume is the reason those features were removed to begin with.
Of course not. They're designed to make you believe they're perfectly fine for anyone. I saw a kid with one who must have been eight the other day. Agreed. I used to vape (as it forced me out of...
You have to be at least 18 years old to buy vapes in the UK anyway. Supposedly teens still have no problem getting their hands on them.
Of course not. They're designed to make you believe they're perfectly fine for anyone. I saw a kid with one who must have been eight the other day.
To be honest vaping is MUCH better for you than cigarettes, and you still see teens smoking cigs outside school, never see the government cracking down on that though.
Agreed. I used to vape (as it forced me out of the office at my finance job) and quit when I didn't need that out. I do smoke cigars granted, I do enjoy them.
So I have no real cart for this race.
That said single use plastics and electronics are pretty terrible, so regulating them seems like a good idea.
Just make the batteries replaceable. Or prohibit the single use ones and FORCE them back to the old mods we used to have that could create steam clouds. That was hilarious and over the top, but at least stuff was reusable!
The concern is not that teens who smoke are switching to vaping. That would be a good thing. It's that teens who were not previously using nicotine are starting to use nicotine because vaping is...
The concern is not that teens who smoke are switching to vaping. That would be a good thing. It's that teens who were not previously using nicotine are starting to use nicotine because vaping is cheap and attractive to them.
Vaping is very much safer than smoking, but not vaping is probably safer than vaping, especially if you're a 14 year old child.
Single-use vapes should be banned for the amount of waste alone. We're going to regret sending so much lithium to landfill (or worse, littered on the floor), when you consider how much we're going to need to power actually useful stuff.
Donna Ferguson
Single-use vapes
Wastage
Child friendly packaging of 2% nicotine products
Prof Andrew Bush, a consultant paediatric chest physician at Royal Brompton and Harefield hospitals, said: “I am concerned that we are sleepwalking into a public health catastrophe with a generation of children hooked on nicotine.”
Scott Butler, the executive director at Material Focus, said that the “problem with single-use vapes has gotten further out of control” over the past year. “Single-use vapes are a strong contender for being the most environmentally wasteful, damaging and dangerous consumer product ever made,” he said.
Prohibition and bans
Should adults make the decision for children? Will that not be considered impinging on a child's right to choose?Should the children be left to decide for themselves after being informed about consequences by printing a statutory warning on the product?
Is this a serious question? We accept almost universally that children don't have the right to choose to join the army, get married, get a tattoo, buy alcohol, see unhealthy foods advertised with cartoon characters. Why should vaping be any different?
We've had a law that kids under 18 can't buy smokes for a while now, that's exactly what it should be for all nicotine products.
That's not even touching on the environmental insanity of these bloody things. The memes of "We get it bro, you vape" was at least reusing the same equipment. These one use things you see strewn over pavements and in hedges and verges when people are done with them.
Health concerns aside, it is an utterly criminal waste of resources, not least because the batteries in them are normal lithium-ion rechargeable batteries that could be recharged 500+ times. Instead, they're thrown out after one use and never recharged. I've taken to picking them up and extracting the batteries for my own projects, but very few people have the need/tools for such a process, so they just end up in landfill (or ditches).
... that's not half a bad idea to be honest.
One assumes it's relatively safe?
It's absolutely not. Those things take any excuse you give them to start a lithium fire in your living room. Those are fun, because you generally can't really put them out with water.
Excuses to start combustion include, but are not limited to:
Working with lithium cells is fun, but you need to know what you're doing. Constantly watching voltages, currents and temperatures (as in, actually having sensors measuring them for the entire pack, ideally for every single cell) is not optional. It's not unusual to have the all cells in a box while experimenting or charging, with a bag of sand ready to bury the cells in case things turn hot.
That first line has truly made my day. Just the idea of sentient batteries just waiting to proper fuck your day up... well, because.
"I'M TOO HOT! GET HIM!"
I did think that. Friend of mine is a very high up engineer in the FAANG world and her response was "I really enjoy you being the whole person you are... sans burns" when I asked ha.
You have to be at least 18 years old to buy vapes in the UK anyway. Supposedly teens still have no problem getting their hands on them.
To be honest vaping is MUCH better for you than cigarettes, and you still see teens smoking cigs outside school, never see the government cracking down on that though.
That said single use plastics and electronics are pretty terrible, so regulating them seems like a good idea.
I vape myself (to quit smoking) and I find it an effective tool, the NHS says it's safer, but my own experience says the ability to reduce the nicotine strength as you wish is a very effective method of tapering.
All of that being said, disposable (1 or 2 day use?) lithium batteries are a blight, just make them refillable and put a charging port on it. Obviously they won't sell as many which I assume is the reason those features were removed to begin with.
Of course not. They're designed to make you believe they're perfectly fine for anyone. I saw a kid with one who must have been eight the other day.
Agreed. I used to vape (as it forced me out of the office at my finance job) and quit when I didn't need that out. I do smoke cigars granted, I do enjoy them.
So I have no real cart for this race.
Just make the batteries replaceable. Or prohibit the single use ones and FORCE them back to the old mods we used to have that could create steam clouds. That was hilarious and over the top, but at least stuff was reusable!
The concern is not that teens who smoke are switching to vaping. That would be a good thing. It's that teens who were not previously using nicotine are starting to use nicotine because vaping is cheap and attractive to them.
Vaping is very much safer than smoking, but not vaping is probably safer than vaping, especially if you're a 14 year old child.