'Zero tolerance' warning to shops selling illegal vapes

This includes giving district councils the power to shut down retailers.

Lisa McNally said the rise of vaping is the issue she gets the most emails about.

Speaking at a meeting of the county council’s health overview and scrutiny committee on Tuesday (November 12), she said it is important to break the supply chain of vapes to children.

“There are many retailers who are quite happy to make a profit out of selling vapes to kids,” said Dr McNally. “And in particular illegal vapes that haven’t been subject to any quality control standards.”

WARNING: Worcestershire's director of public health Lisa McNally (Image: Lisa McNally)

Vapes sold illegally include some designed to look like highlighters so they don’t get confiscated when taken into schools.

“There is of course a change in legislation now and it will be interesting to see what effect that has when disposable vapes are no longer available for sale, because disposable vapes are the main type of vape young people get hold of,” said Dr McNally.

“It’s a big priority for us - assessing prevalence as best we can, trying to reduce kids’ demand for vapes by working with them to think about the dangers while at the same time having an absolutely zero tolerance on retailers that sell illegal vapes.

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“We’ve put extra funding into legal capacity in district councils to be able to get full closure orders in.

“Our message to a retailer now is ‘If you sell vapes to children, illegal or otherwise, we won’t just confiscate the vapes, we will close you down’.”

She said there isn’t enough data nationally to show exactly how many children are vaping but “many have tried it”.

Illegal vapes confiscated in Malvern (Image: Malvern SNT)

“Young people get started on vapes to fit in, but nicotine is one of the most addictive substances we know about,” she added. “Far more addictive than caffeine, some say as addictive as some opiate drugs like heroin.

“So kids will need support to come off vapes if they’ve been doing it for a while - and we have programmes available for that.”

Dr McNally also said the general message to the public on vaping is very simple.

CONFISCATED: Illegal vapes found in a Worcester shop by police.

“Our message, from a public health point of view, is very clear - and we are getting feedback that this is understood - is that if you do not smoke, don’t start vaping.

“It’s a daft thing to do, really. It can have no benefit. It’s expensive and we don’t know the long-term effects.

“However, if you are smoking tobacco, particularly if you find yourself pregnant, if you are very addicted, vaping has been shown to be a way of helping people off tobacco - but then we need to support people off vaping as well.”