Belgium has become the first EU country to ban the sale of disposable vapes | Stubbing out vaping’s rapid rise
https://www.techspot.com/news/106168-belgium-has-become-first-eu-country-ban-sale.html
Belgium has become the first EU country to ban the sale of disposable vapes | Stubbing out vaping’s rapid rise
https://www.techspot.com/news/106168-belgium-has-become-first-eu-country-ban-sale.html
6 Comments
From the article: European nations are becoming increasingly serious about cracking down on smoking and vaping, especially among young people. Belgium has become the first country in the European Union to outright ban the sale of disposable vapes starting this month. At the same time, Italy’s Milan also ushered in the new year by implementing a ban on outdoor smoking in public spaces.
As [reported](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jan/01/belgium-becomes-first-eu-country-to-ban-sale-of-disposable-vapes) by The Guardian, Belgian health minister Frank Vandenbroucke didn’t mince words when announcing the prohibition last year, calling disposable e-cigarettes an “extremely harmful” product designed to hook a new generation on nicotine. He cited the waste from the non-reusable vapes as being packed with “hazardous chemicals” that damage the environment.
While reusable vape systems aren’t included in Belgium’s ban, the country does have an ambitious goal of reducing new smokers to zero or near zero by 2040 through various “denormalizing” efforts.
Smoking is already banned in playgrounds, sports fields, zoos, and theme parks. Starting April 1, tobacco products will no longer be sold in large supermarkets or displayed at points of sale.
If they didn’t ban cigarettes but banned vapes, it always means they were paid by tobacco companies to help with customers.
I was under the impression they were already illegal in Ireland?
The sale of Elf Bars are banned in Hungary since 2022.
I was in Cali the week they banned vapes. I’d seen vapes in stores after I got there, but a few days later, when mine ran out and I went to get a new one, I found that they were banned. I was so annoyed. I had had no idea. Lol.
That’s good. I just recently quit smoking to replace it with a vape, the ones that you recharge and fill with liquid.
While browsing the website, I was mind-blown about the number of disposable vapes, compared with the rechargeable ones.
Their designs where also clearly targeting a young audience, with shiny colors, LED/LCD screens, and “trademarks” (models like “Ferrari Disposable Vape”). Such bad.
I’m not even from Europe tho, but I’ve also read a bunch of stuff online about vapes, and AFAIK disposable vapes are essentially more dangerous because you don’t know WTF they got inside, and they are of course way more toxic to the environment as a whole.