Dr Catherine Conlon: We led the way on smoking laws, let’s do the same for vaping

Ireland has led the way globally with the introduction of legislation on smoking indoors. Now there is an opportunity to provide the same global leadership with legislation to protect teenagers and young people from recreational vaping

Older people might enjoy the menthol flavour whereas fruit and sweet flavours can be more attractive to younger people.

The Australian government has announced a decision to ban all disposable vapes, which often come in fruity flavours, to ban the import of non-prescription vapes, and to limit nicotine levels, with the intention that the sale of vapes will be confined to helping smokers quit.

The legislation is designed to tackle the surge in teenage vaping and includes minimum quality standards restricting flavours, colours and ingredients. Products will be required to have pharmaceutical-like packaging, and the concentration and volumes of nicotine will be controlled.