It took courage to ban smoking in public places but it will be easier to stop sale of disposable vapes - Susan Dalgety

By Susan Dalgety
Published 3rd Jul 2023, 07:00 BST
ASH Scotland are particularly concerned about the rising number of adolescents who vapeASH Scotland are particularly concerned about the rising number of adolescents who vape
ASH Scotland are particularly concerned about the rising number of adolescents who vape
One of the best decisions I have ever made – second only to asking my husband to marry me – was to give up smoking. On my 40th birthday I smoked my last cigarette, and I haven’t looked back.

Okay, so I put on two stone in the months following my decision to quit, destroying my waistline and already fragile teeth by eating too many chocolate biscuits.

But these were sacrifices worth making.

If I had continued to smoke, chances are I would have ended up like my father, dead at 64 from chronic lung disease.

I didn’t go cold turkey. No willpower – which is why I had become addicted to cigarettes in the first place – so I used nicotine chewing gum.

It tasted awful, gave me chronic wind and pulled out a couple of fillings (see ‘fragile teeth’), but it got me through the first awful weeks when I would have traded my first born for a Consulate.

Vaping wasn’t a thing in 1997, for which I am eternally grateful, because I know I would have become addicted to mint flavoured vapes, just as I was hooked on menthol cigarettes.

A few years after I gave up, I was part of the team working on communications around the smoking ban.

The then First Minister, Jack McConnell, was initially apprehensive that Scots would object to being told where and when they could smoke, but he held his nerve and thousands of Scots are alive today because of his decision.

So, should e-cigarettes be banned – or only be available on prescription as part of a smoking cessation regime, as they are in Australia?

ASH Scotland think so. Last week, following a visit to Edinburgh by leading Australian public health experts, the charity urged the Scottish Government to consider copying the Australian approach.

ASH Scotland are particularly concerned about the rising number of adolescents who vape.

The latest Health and Wellbeing Census shows that 10 per cent of 15 year-olds regularly use e-cigarettes, a three-fold increase since 2017.

I am not sure that an outright ban on the general sale of vapes is the answer, as it might discourage adults from quitting tobacco.

But ASH Scotland is correct about the risk e-cigarettes pose to young people’s health.

Perhaps the answer is a ban on single-use disposable vapes, which teenagers love. The Scottish Government has already agreed to review their sale on environmental grounds.

The health benefits of a ban, particularly for young people, would be significant too, as the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health pointed out recently.

And research from the World Health Organisation shows that young people who vape are up to three times as likely to start smoking – a killer statistic.

The EU is likely to ban disposable vapes by the end of 2026, and while Scotland is no longer a member of the European Union, we can still lead the way in public health measures.

It took political courage to ban smoking in public places in 2006.

It will be much easier to stop the sale of disposable vapes, so why wait? The First Minister should take action now.