Urgent warning after hundreds of illegal disposable vapes seized amid health and safety fears

Dec 17, 2023

AN URGENT warning has been issued after hundreds of illegal disposable vapes were seized from shops.

Trading Standards officers found the illegal e-cigarettes with nicotine levels twice the UK legal limit being sold in corner shops.

The Geek Bar Pro vapes have not been authorised to be sold by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).

The vapes are known for being a powerful and brightly coloured disposable device – available in a range of flavours, such as icy cola, orange soda and lush ice.

The disposable e-cigarettes, available to buy around £6, are pre-filled with 4.5ml of nicotine and last for up to 1,500 puffs before they are thrown away.

In the UK, the legal limit of an e-cigarette tank is 2ml - but the Geek Bar Pro is more than double the cap.

The product should also have the name and address of a UK contact if the producer is based outside of the UK, but the Geek Bar Pro vapes did not have this information.

More than 140 of the illegal nicotine devices were seized during raids of two convenience shops in Crawley, West Sussex, following a tip-off from a local resident.

Peter Aston, West Sussex Trading Standards team manager said: "These products do not meet legal requirements and we are working hard to make sure retailers in West Sussex remove them from sale."

Duncan Crow, member for Community Support, Fire and Rescue, said: "Trading Standards officers are taking action to get these products off shop shelves – protecting the health and wellbeing of people in West Sussex and ensuring local retailers and wholesalers are selling only legal vaping products."

E-cigarettes contain nicotine and are not risk-free but many experts believe they are less harmful than smoking.

Meanwhile, smokers trying to quit will be prescribed e-cigarettes on the NHS in months.

It is part of a crackdown on tobacco addiction by Health Secretary Sajid Javid.

A white paper in the spring aims to level up health with a world first by approving vapes.

A Whitehall insider said: "Mr Javid has made it clear he wants to level up health - tackling smoking is part of that. The MHRA opened the door to prescribing vapes."

The plan is to tackle a ­shocking healthy life expectancy divide of 18.6 years in the UK. Blackpool has the lowest healthy life expectancy for men — with those born there likely to have just 53.3 years in good health.

In contrast, those from affluent Richmond upon Thames in South West London can expect 71.9 years of good health.

By 2030, the Government wants Britain to be free of smoking, which is one of the main causes of the gap. In Blackpool, 23.4 per cent of ­people smoke compared with just eight per cent in Richmond.