Belgium Becomes First EU Country To Ban Sale of Disposable Vapes (theguardian.com)
- Reference: 0175813985
- News link: https://slashdot.org/story/25/01/01/2030250/belgium-becomes-first-eu-country-to-ban-sale-of-disposable-vapes
- Source link: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jan/01/belgium-becomes-first-eu-country-to-ban-sale-of-disposable-vapes
> The sale of disposable electronic cigarettes is banned in Belgium on health and environmental grounds from 1 January. A ban on outdoor smoking in Milan came into force on the same day, as EU countries discuss tighter controls on tobacco.
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> Announcing the ban last year, Belgium's health minister, Frank Vandenbroucke, described electronic cigarettes as an "extremely harmful" product that damages society and the environment. "Disposable e-cigarettes is a new product simply designed to attract new consumers," he told the Associated Press. "E-cigarettes often contain nicotine. Nicotine makes you addicted to nicotine. Nicotine is bad for your health."
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jan/01/belgium-becomes-first-eu-country-to-ban-sale-of-disposable-vapes
Well done (Score:3, Insightful)
There is ZERO benefit from them, so getting rid of them is excellent.
Re: (Score:1)
nice scaremongering
It's illegal to sell cigarettes to minors, under 18yrs old, in Belgium.
Re: (Score:3)
Sale to 16-18 y.o. was banned in 2019 [1]https://www.brusselstimes.com/... [brusselstimes.com]
[1] https://www.brusselstimes.com/75689/belgium-bans-tobacco-sales-to-minors-under-age-18
Disgusting waste of resources (Score:5, Insightful)
Future generations will marvel at the crap we used to consume and throw away, I'd like to think. If my aunt got to see a year's worth of waste from her fruity drug addiction in one place I'm sure she'd be horrified!
Vapes are rainbow cigarettes (Score:2)
As soon as traditional cigarettes were put into restricted display and packaging colorful vapes took their place, making nicotine products look like a willy wonka invention.
Oh Dear, think of the (Score:1)
Billionaires not being able to exploit the masses with legal drugs. When has our lives be better ?
Kinda (Score:2)
> Nicotine makes you addicted to nicotine.
And caffeine makes you addicted to caffeine.
Alcohol makes you addicted to alcohol.
The nicotine/caffeine/whatever is not inherently bad. It is used in bad ways both by those creating the products and those that use them. Nicotine is often combined with many other things that are significantly worse (and sometimes even more addicting than the nicotine by itself).
Re: (Score:3)
For caffeine it is a dependence but not an addiction. Wikipedia explains [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] :
> Pathologically reinforced caffeine use induces a dependence syndrome, but not an addiction.[8] For a drug to induce an addiction from repeated use at sufficiently high doses, it must activate the brain's reward circuitry, particularly the mesolimbic pathway.[8] Neuroimaging studies of preclinical and human subjects have demonstrated that chronic caffeine consumption does not sufficiently activate the reward system, relative to other drugs of addiction (e.g., cocaine, morphine, nicotine).[9][10][11] As a consequence, compulsive use (i.e., an addiction) of caffeine has yet to be observed in humans.[8]
I agree heroin or cocaine are not inherently bad, they can have medical uses.
However, alcohol is inherently bad. There is no amount, however small or big, in which alcohol ingestion does good to the body. Wikipedia [2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] :
> A meta analysis of 107 cohort studies concludes low daily alcohol intake provides no health benefits and increased consumption, even at relatively low levels of daily intake (>2 beverages for women and >3 beverages for men), increases health- and mortality-risks.[87][88]
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caffeine_dependence#Dependence_vs._addiction
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcoholic_beverage#Alcohol_and_health
Re: (Score:2)
Alcohol (ethanol) is a treatment for methanol poisoning.
Why not a cartridge standard for vape juice? (Score:1)
I've heard of some vapes which have a high amperage where one can plug jumper cables and get an eight cylinder diesel truck started. With that much watt-hours stored in a vape, why are these considered disposable? Why not have a standard cartridge format, so batteries can be kept and recharged, but vape juice replacing is relatively easy.
Re: Why not a cartridge standard for vape juice? (Score:2)
Because "disposable" == "more profitâ
It's *always* about profit.
Re: (Score:3)
> I've heard of some vapes which have a high amperage where one can plug jumper cables and get an eight cylinder diesel truck started.
You heard wrong, that's absolute bollocks. What actually exist are jumper packs containing a number of hefty lithium batteries that can, with a little luck, turn over a car engine a few times. A Diesel? Maybe a small one.
Lead-acid batteries can deliver about 100 amps @ 12 volts. You just can't get that from a little lithium cell from a vape.
Re: (Score:2)
There doesn't seem to be any benefit from having more than a couple of cells maximum. A slightly flat diesel truck battery could be assisted in starting a vehicle with perhaps four or better yet eight calls. (It depends on which, too. Most non-Mercedes inline diesels have relatively low static compression and have a turbo, so they get better efficiency at part throttle if the turbo is sized well but are also easier to start. I've started a Cummins ISC from a single group 27 battery multiple times.
Rechargeab
Why don't they ban money (Score:2)
Without money you can't buy nicotine containing products. The logic is the same as what they are going with...
Pretty much everything disposable (Score:2)
...is bad
Not to mention the batteries (Score:5, Interesting)
In my area (not Belgium) they are having problems with these things being disposed of in "normal" wastebins. These batteries can and do occasionally catch fire when the bins are emptied, often with expensive consequences.
Re: (Score:1)
People throw these into waste bins on planes.
Re: (Score:2)
Are these things even legal to take on an airplane? How much liquid do they hold and do they meet the liquid restrictions? What about the rules around lithium batteries?
Re: (Score:2)
A regular vape uses far less liquid than the limit, and these are disposable so they usually have even less. The rules for lithium batteries on planes say that you have to take them in the cabin with you.
Re: (Score:2)
I've been into plane bathrooms and seen a handful of used vapes sitting directly on top of the overflowing trash can.
Re: (Score:2)
One guy on YouTube (Big Clive?) was collecting them off the street to harvest an 18650 and building battery packs out of them.
Apparently they recharge fine.
Never tried, personally - relatively civilized here; only saw one on the ground once.
Re: (Score:2)
It was [1]Big Clive [youtube.com], but he mostly found pouch cells. They don't often use 18650s in disposable vapes.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N65DpT2nqEI