Fines of up to €4,000 as ban on selling vapes to under-18s comes in today

Vaping products in shop fronts in Dublin. Picture: Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin

Retailers who sell vapes have welcomed new legislation making it illegal to sell these products to under-18s but cautioned against further “kneejerk regulation”.

From today, it is an offence to sell any nicotine-inhaling product to a child. The offence carries a fine of up to €4,000 and up to six months in prison.

Vapes, also known as e-cigarettes, were designed to help adult smokers quit smoking. They have been shown to successfully aid with this. However, in recent years they have also become hugely popular with teens and children with studies showing teens who never smoked are vaping.

Health advocates have linked this to colourful packaging and enticing flavours such as bubblegum, marshmallow and pink fizz.

Health minister Stephen Donnelly said further parts of the Public Health (Tobacco Products and Nicotine Inhaling Products) Act will commence next year. These include changes around advertising, a licensing system and vending machines.

“I want to see restrictions on the point of sale advertising,” he told RTÉ on Thursday.

He also supports an end to sale of disposable vapes in Ireland and said public consultation on that remains open. “There’s been very very broad support from within government and indeed opposition for going further,” he said.

Health minister Stephen Donnelly said further parts of the Public Health (Tobacco Products and Nicotine Inhaling Products) Act will commence next year.

Paul Malone, national spokesman for Vape Business Ireland, said their members already had a voluntary code around age limits. “It is a condition for joining our trade association,” he said.

“There are a lot of retailers out there doing the right thing, and who will not risk their business by selling products for adults to minors.” 

He called on the government to support retailers, saying many are small family businesses, in enforcing the regulation but said further restrictions such as a ban on flavours or point-of-sale display would "only serve to throw out the baby with the bathwater".

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Mr Malone suggested a low excise on vaping as a “sensible regulation” his members would welcome. “Vaping is not smoking, and a ban on point-of-sale display and advertising would unfairly put vapes on a par with cigarettes,” he argued.

University College Cork professor of emeritus in chemistry, John Sodeau, previously told the Irish Examiner: “In the 1940s tobacco, believe it or not, was thought to be a health benefit because it would calm the nerves. We have learned a lot since then. 

“Now it’s about 20 years for e-cigarettes and vaping, and there hasn’t been a long enough time span really to check what the actual outcomes are.” 

The French parliament voted this month to completely ban the sale of disposable vapes. In Italy vapes can only be sold to over-18s and packaging must contain a health warning. In the UK under-18s also cannot buy vapes.