'Health catastrophe' : Vaping single use product ban call from Derry & Strabane Council

A motion to this effect was proposed by Waterside Sinn Féin District Councillor Caitlin Deeney at a Council meeting on Wednesday, October 25.

The Council will now write to NI Secretary of State Chris Heaton-Harris requesting an outright ban on these products.

"Disposable vaping products are made with plastic, copper and lithium batteries,” Colr. Deeney said. “These are very valuable resources which should be recycled. However, they are not being recycled and, as they fill landfills and litter our streets, we are at risk of chemicals leaking into our environment.”

Colr. Deeney said the ban would ‘avoid the air and water pollution and Greenhouse Gas emissions that come with vapes’.

She also pointed out that single use vapes are readily available to young people.

"We have all noticed these products in shops,” she said. “They are marketed with bright, vibrant colours and have flavours designed to entice young people.

"They are affordable and accessible, and teenagers have been led to believe that vaping’s less harmful than smoking. This is unproven and the long term effects are not known. Our young people should not be the guinea pigs in this experiment.’

"I cannot imagine the worry parents have for their children.

"If we don’t take action now we face seeing our shops being flooded by these products, resulting in a health and environmental catastrophe.”

Waterside SDLP District Councillor Martin Reilly said the Council needed to ensure vapes were ‘not targeted at children’.

He said: "I’m also concerned about the wider impact on the environment and, due to their disposable nature, that they will teach people of a disposable culture where things get thrown away after one use.”

Waterside DUP Alderman Chelsea Cooke said there wasn’t enough awareness of the dangers of vaping.

"E cigarettes contain chemicals like Acrolein, which is used to kill weeds,” Alderman Cooke said. “Northern Ireland Chest Heart & Stroke have raised concerns about vaping and what it does to the body, for example cardiovascular and respiratory diseases.

"It’s such an important topic to raise awareness of.”

Andrew Balfour,

Local Democracy Reporter