BRUSSELS: Wildly popular with young people for their dizzying array of flavours, including apple, watermelon and cola, the time is up for disposable e-cigarettes in Belgium — the first EU country to ban them.

From January 1, it will be forbidden to sell single-use vapes in Belgium, a bid to protect young people’s health as part of a national anti-tobacco plan.

The European Union aims to achieve a tobacco-free generation by 2040, reducing the 27-country bloc’s smoking population from around 25 per cent now to less than five percent of the total. Some EU countries plan to bring that deadline forward.

Vapes are often promoted as less harmful than smoking traditional tobacco products.

They attract younger users with their colourful packaging and the promise of mouth-watering flavours, and the advantage of avoiding that nasty smoke smell on fingers.

But since e-cigarettes still contain nicotine, which is highly addictive, critics fear they could be a potential stepping stone to more traditional tobacco products.

Belgium boasts it has reacted quickly to the dangers posed by disposable e-cigarettes, which hit the market more than five years ago. In 2021, the federal government submitted a proposal to the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, to ban single-use vapes.

The commission, which must give its approval for any sales ban, accorded a green light to Belgium in March 2024, paving the way for a national law to enter into force.

France has obtained EU acceptance for a similar ban. Once enacted, the French law will ban the production, sale and free offer of vapes, with a fine of 100,000 euros ($104,000) for any violations.

Health authorities in France and Belgium say that chronic nicotine consumption is especially harmful to the adolescent brain and could encourage use of other drugs.

Published in Dawn, December 31st, 2024