Counterfeit vapes are undermining efforts to reduce smoking

There is a vaping epidemic taking place across the UK, but not necessarily the one some would expect. The sale of hundreds of thousands of counterfeit vapes, as opposed to legal, regulated products, should be the real cause of concern.

The vast majority of people who pick up a vape do so in an attempt to quit smoking, and rightly so; Public Health England has already confirmed that vaping is one of the most effective smoking cessation aids available.

Japan saw a profound decline in cigarette use following the introduction of heated tobacco products. People who smoke should be encouraged to make this switch. However, they cannot be expected to do so in confidence with so many counterfeit vapes on the market.

Recently, Trading Standards officials declared illegal vapes to be the top threat on the UK High Street, finding that an alarming one in three businesses selling vaping products are breaking the law. In one day alone last week, more than 6,500 vapes were seized by Westminster City Council after being illegally sold in Oxford Street sweet shops.

The illicit products are so prevalent that one vaping manufacturer has been actively working with government officials in China to shut down more than 20 factories, removing over a million fake products intended for the UK market. Action is clearly being taken, but it is a worry that the damage may already have been done.

Counterfeit vapes undermine confidence in the product category. That a product is both 95 percent safer than cigarettes and also a successful quitting tool should be celebrated. But this is significantly more difficult when there are countless illegal products on the street, giving legal vapes that have been through rigorous safety testing a bad reputation.

Taking account of the huge number of news stories surrounding counterfeit vapes that appear splashed across the news on a weekly basis, it wouldn’t be all that surprising if people decided not to make the switch. Worryingly, data from Action on Smoking and Health found that a third of smokers incorrectly believe that vaping is as harmful as smoking.

Given the amount of uncertainty that already exists about these products, strong action to clamp down on counterfeit vapes is needed, as well as a public health campaign to spread awareness of the facts surrounding vaping. Without both of these, the media will continue to run wild and spread hysteria and misinformation, only discouraging people from switching.

Even educating shop owners on how to spot a counterfeit vape would go a long way in solving this problem, as many retail outlet owners are not aware that the products they are purchasing from wholesalers are illegal. It might well be impossible to seize all of these products upon entry to the country, so working with retailers to solve the problem, rather than unnecessarily punishing them for products they did not know were counterfeit, should be on the trading standards priority list.

This is undoubtedly a serious problem which is having the effect of tainting people’s perceptions of vaping. Legitimate vaping products have been through rigorous scientific, safety and quality testing so the public can be confident that they are far safer than smoking. It’s time to prioritise clamping down on illegal products so as to not halt the tide of progress being made in encouraging people to switch to safer alternatives.

Martin Cullip is an International Fellow at the Taxpayers Protection Alliance think tank and former chair of the UK Educational Charity The New Nicotine Alliance