UKVIA Director General Says French PM Was Misled, Disposable Ban Will Drive Smoking Rates Higher

On September 5, John Dunne, Director General of the UK Vaping Industry Association, told Liangge Zhishang that France’s ban on disposable vaping devices could lead to higher smoking rates in France, and that what the UK needs is not a ban but tighter enforcement of existing laws.

[Original by Liangge Zhishang] On September 4, France announced plans to ban disposable vaping devices. Soon afterward, organizations in the UK and anti-vaping advocates strongly called on the government to follow France’s example. On September 5, John Dunne, Director General of the UK Vaping Industry Association, told Liangge Zhishang that the ban could lead to higher smoking rates in France, and that what the UK needs is not a ban but stricter existing laws. 

John Dunne said France’s plan to ban disposable devices would not only fail to curb tobacco use, but would very likely lead to an increase in smoking rates.

According to John Dunne, French Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne announced on Sunday that the ban would form part of a new national plan to address the country’s rising smoking rate. In France, smoking causes 75,000 deaths each year, but if the government continues to push this policy, the death toll will rise rather than fall.

He believes there is enormous demand for disposable vaping devices in both the UK and France, and if they are banned, that demand will not simply disappear. Instead, users will either turn to the black market for untested and potentially dangerous alternatives, or go back to smoking. In Australia, vaping products are available only by prescription and disposable devices are banned, but this has led to a huge black market emerging to meet demand for vaping products, especially disposables.

John Dunne said: “Dr. Colin Mendelsohn, one of the world’s leading authorities on tobacco harm reduction, has said the country’s ‘flawed’ vaping restrictions have ‘created a rampant black market run by criminal gangs,’ and that 92% of the country’s vaping users buy vaping products through illegal channels.”

“In the UK, we have seen that disposable devices have proven very effective in helping smokers switch to vaping, which is a far lower-risk alternative to combustible cigarettes. They are low-cost, compact, and easy to use, all of which are important factors in helping smokers make the initial transition to vaping.” 

“The French Prime Minister has defended the proposed ban on the grounds that these products are a gateway to smoking for young people, but I respectfully submit that she has been misled.” 

John Dunne said that just last month, the charity Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) released a report providing evidence that vaping is neither as harmful as smoking nor a recognized pathway into smoking, and that it is not inherently addictive in the way critics often claim.

John Dunne cited data showing that the latest figures from the UK Office for National Statistics (ONS) put the UK smoking rate at the lowest level on record (13.3%), and the ONS said vaping has played an “important role” in reducing smoking rates.

John Dunne said what the UK needs now is tighter enforcement of existing vaping laws, not a ban. “There is a problem with youth vaping, but the answer is not to ban products that are clearly helping adult smokers quit. Instead, the UK needs to enforce and strengthen the laws already in place, so that no retailer finds it worthwhile to sell these age-restricted adult products to children.”