Waitrose stops selling single-use vaping products

Silver

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This recent article caught my eye
Waitrose is a large British supermarket chain.
Quite a bold move.
Will be interesting to see if others follow suit.


I've reproduced the text of the article below

Link to original article is here:


Waitrose stops selling single-use vaping products​

Company cites their harmful effect on the environment and the health of young people for the move.

Waitrose has stopped selling single-use vaping products because of their negative impact on the environment and the health of young people.

The popularity of products such as e-cigarettes has soared over the past year, with vaping in Great Britain reaching record levels. About 4.3 million people are regular vapers, according to a recent report.

The company said it could no longer justify selling single-use products and that it had removed two types of e-cigarette from sale.

“Our move comes as reports suggest that the market growth is being fuelled by the popularity among those who haven’t previously smoked,” it said.

Waitrose said it has de-listed vaping products containing lithium, which it had previously sold under the Ten Motives label.

The firm’s commercial director, Charlotte Di Cello, said: “We are a retailer driven by doing the right thing, so selling single-use vapes is not something we could justify given the impact on both the environment and the health of young people.

“We had already decided it wasn’t right to stock the fashionable bright-coloured devices which are seeing rapid growth, so this decision is the final jigsaw piece in our clear decision not to be part of the single-use vaping market.”

No other major UK supermarket chains have publicly announced that they will be taking similar action.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics revealed last month that the proportion of tobacco smokers in the UK had fallen to the lowest level on record in 2021, partly because of the increase in vaping.

The ONS said vaping devices such as e-cigarettes had played a major role in reducing the prevalence of tobacco smoking across the UK.

It added, however, that the proportion of vapers was highest among current cigarette smokers at 25.3%, and former cigarette smokers at 15%. Only 1.5% of people who have never smoked said they vaped.

Vaping is considered to be substantially less harmful than smoking, according to a major review of nicotine products, but action is needed to tackle the sharp rise in e-cigarette use among children.

Despite it being illegal to sell the devices to under-18s, research indicates a steep rise in underage vaping over the last five years, with the proportion of 16- to 18-year-olds who say they use e-cigarettes doubling in the past 12 months, according to Action on Smoking and Health.

Elf Bar, one of the leading brands of disposable vapes, was previously found to be flouting rules to promote its products to young people on TikTok.
 
I hope disposables will be banned altogether in the UK who are just about the most pro vaping country and such a move will remove two of the biggest negatives towards vaping, that they are being used by those under the legal age of smoking (disposables are appealing and easily accessible to young people) and the damage to the environment, sick of seeing used disposables just tossed onto the ground!
 
I hope disposables will be banned altogether in the UK who are just about the most pro vaping country and such a move will remove two of the biggest negatives towards vaping, that they are being used by those under the legal age of smoking (disposables are appealing and easily accessible to young people) and the damage to the environment, sick of seeing used disposables just tossed onto the ground!

good points @Timwis

I also worry about the impact of the 50mg Nic salts found in many of the disposables
My feeling is it acts quickly to get non smokers very hooked on nicotine
 
I wish disposables or rather anything over 20/25mg gets banned,

the marketing on these disposables are just getting worst, 99.5% do not understand what is 5% nic !

I picked one out of my friends hand over the weekend which had no marking of nic percentage on the device (might have had on the package)

At this rate we will sadly see the end of the healthier versions of vaping
 
I wish disposables or rather anything over 20/25mg gets banned,

the marketing on these disposables are just getting worst, 99.5% do not understand what is 5% nic !

I picked one out of my friends hand over the weekend which had no marking of nic percentage on the device (might have had on the package)

At this rate we will sadly see the end of the healthier versions of vaping

I hear you @Faraaz

You are right, most people dont know the difference between 2.5% and 5%. After all, 5% doesn't sound too bad, does it?

When we made the journey to vaping back in 2013, in the beginning, I remember lots and lots of threads discussing how one compares the nicotine in a cigarette versus vaping liquid. It's not easy to make a direct comparison.

Back to my concern about 50mg nic salt.
This might be okay for a heavy smoker to start vaping and not get put off vaping, because they get the nicotine they need.
Hopefully this gets them off the combustibles
Then they can adjust lower.

But for non smokers, I think 50mg is not a good thing.
 
I hear you @Faraaz

You are right, most people dont know the difference between 2.5% and 5%. After all, 5% doesn't sound too bad, does it?

When we made the journey to vaping back in 2013, in the beginning, I remember lots and lots of threads discussing how one compares the nicotine in a cigarette versus vaping liquid. It's not easy to make a direct comparison.

Back to my concern about 50mg nic salt.
This might be okay for a heavy smoker to start vaping and not get put off vaping, because they get the nicotine they need.
Hopefully this gets them off the combustibles
Then they can adjust lower.

But for non smokers, I think 50mg is not a good thing.
Exactly @Silver .

It is very difficult to find anything under 50mg at convenience stores anyway.

After all, they are just convenience. Unlike going to a specialized store who will (well most of them) guide you correctly.

Although not so easily but we all left smoking with 18mg freebase.
 
Exactly @Silver .

It is very difficult to find anything under 50mg at convenience stores anyway.

After all, they are just convenience. Unlike going to a specialized store who will (well most of them) guide you correctly.

Although not so easily but we all left smoking with 18mg freebase.

Agreed!

I used 18mg freebase on my Twisp Clearos. Had to have 3/4 of them side by side and vaped them like a steam train
But it worked well
I also tried 24mg freebase for a while in the ProTanks and that worked well too.

50mg is too much I think
Plus the nic salt aspect makes it smooth on your throat so you dont feel the roughness of it
You end up just get loaded with more nic.

Once again, its probably ok for a heavy smoker - but I am concerned about this strength for non-smokers
 
Agreed!

I used 18mg freebase on my Twisp Clearos. Had to have 3/4 of them side by side and vaped them like a steam train
But it worked well
I also tried 24mg freebase for a while in the ProTanks and that worked well too.

50mg is too much I think
Plus the nic salt aspect makes it smooth on your throat so you dont feel the roughness of it
You end up just get loaded with more nic.

Once again, its probably ok for a heavy smoker - but I am concerned about this strength for non-smokers
On a lighter note , you would simply get silvered.

:p

I agree, it was chaos, flat batteries, leaking coils, dud coils etc

On the positive note, many stores have told me the conversion rate from disposables to pods is pretty high.

However the as you mention, the uneducated and non smokers is the major issue.
 
On a lighter note , you would simply get silvered.

:p

I agree, it was chaos, flat batteries, leaking coils, dud coils etc

On the positive note, many stores have told me the conversion rate from disposables to pods is pretty high.

However the as you mention, the uneducated and non smokers is the major issue.

Good to hear
Well if it can lead to positives and get people off smoking then I am all for it.

I just wonder at what cost?
(ie how many non-smokers then become very hooked on it)
 
Good to hear
Well if it can lead to positives and get people off smoking then I am all for it.

I just wonder at what cost?
(ie how many non-smokers then become very hooked on it)
We do not have the exact sales figures .. again .. most are sold at convenience stores.

If it were only sold at specialized stores, it would have been much easier to get a ratio, the plus side is disposables can get very heavy on the pocket, that again could just defeat the purpose and throw them back to where they came from.

Education is key and only available through the stores, paid marketing is unfortunately out of the question.
 
I wish disposables or rather anything over 20/25mg gets banned,

the marketing on these disposables are just getting worst, 99.5% do not understand what is 5% nic !

I picked one out of my friends hand over the weekend which had no marking of nic percentage on the device (might have had on the package)

At this rate we will sadly see the end of the healthier versions of vaping
Agree, it's no accident they display the strength as 5% rather than 50mg. I also dislike the fact the more established manufacturers who's focus was on mods, rebuildable's etc are also going down the high nic disposable route proving when we thought they were genuinely on vapers side and cared actually care about one thing, making money and nothing else!
 
good points @Timwis

I also worry about the impact of the 50mg Nic salts found in many of the disposables
My feeling is it acts quickly to get non smokers very hooked on nicotine

Agree wholeheartedly @Silver. No-one needs 50mg nic! And especially for youngsters who become addicted at such a young age - where do they go from there? It's difficult enough to give up cigarettes which have a low nic level, let alone try to give up 50mg!! Dispos are here to stay, but they should be capped at 25mg nic.
 
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