Elf Bar vapes removed from supermarket shelves after being 50% over legal nicotine limit

The likes of Sainsbury's, Tesco and Morrisons had been stocking the above-limit products. In December, Waitrose announced they would no longer be selling disposable vapes, citing concerns over the products' impact on "health of young people." Marchant called for places selling vapes to employ a Challenge 25 policy and for the fines for selling vape products to minors to be raised from a maximum of £2500 to a minimum of £10,000. "They're [vapes] absolutely designed for adult use – and the UK has very strict advertising rules," he said. "So products can’t be marketed to children and non-smokers, and must not ‘glamourise’ the products. Because of the nicotine content, vaping often gets lumped in with the tactics of the tobacco industry. "This is completely false and takes away from some of the public health benefits these products create". [caption id="attachment_377120" align="alignnone" width="1296"] Lab tests found that the popular Elf Bar 600 line had nicotine levels at least 50 percent above the UK's legal limit (Elf Bar)[/caption] When asked what should retailers need to do to tighten restrictions on underage children buying these products, he said: "The flippant answer is to stop selling them to kids. Employ a challenge 25 policy and be extremely strict. "Although we know it is not an issue with a large proportion of convenience retailers, the statistics do show that the majority of underage sales are happening on the high street. If a retailer is aware of another business that is flouting the law, please pass the information on to your local Trading Standards officers who can then investigate.

"Really we need far more help and engagement from the government to help keep these products out of children’s hands, but still, maintain the enormous public health benefits they bring.

"The vaping industry has been calling for a registration or licencing scheme for some time now. The revenue this generates can then be used to fund a mandatory national test purchasing scheme, where Trading Standards will coordinate a ‘secret shopper’ style test on all retailers of vape products (and this could really apply to other age-restricted products too).

"We also need to increase the fines for selling vape products to minors from a maximum of £2500 to a minimum of £10,000.  There needs to be a real deterrent that actually encourages the less scrupulous retailers to not risk selling to children."

Related links:

• Vaping addict left on life support with deadly lung condition
• Major UK supermarket chain stops selling disposable vapes due to concerns over 'health of young people'
• Irish government planning complete ban of disposable vapes
• A Geek Tragedy: How the rise of single-use vapes created an environmental crisis