Is vaping bad for you, and how are the rules changing?

The government is tightening up the rules about how vapes are marketed and sold, alongside wider plans to tackle health issues caused by smoking.

A ban on disposable vapes will also be introduced and a new tax on nicotine vapes put in place.

How are the rules about vapes changing?

The government's Tobacco and Vapes Bill proposes to outlaw vape advertising and sponsorship, and to restrict the flavours, packaging and display of vapes and other nicotine products.  

Outdoor vaping may also be banned in smoke-free places, subject to consultation.

Separately, the government had already announced that disposable vapes will be banned in England, Wales and Scotland from 1 June 2025. Northern Ireland is expected to follow suit.

The move is designed to protect children and young people's health, and to reduce environmental damage.

It covers single-use vapes which cannot be refilled or recharged.

Previous Conservative government plans to limit vaping and smoking had not become law by the time of the July general election, so Labour has brought in its own legislation.

• How will the UK smoking ban work?

How will the new vaping tax work and when will it start?

Vaping products are already subject to 20% VAT but, unlike tobacco, they do not attract a separate additional tax.

As part of the Autumn Budget, Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced that a vaping products duty will start on 1 October 2026.

It will be charged at a flat rate of £2.20 per 10ml vaping liquid.

At the same time, tobacco duty will be increased to preserve the financial incentive to switch to vaping.

Is vaping bad for your health?

Vaping is nowhere near as harmful as smoking cigarettes.

However, health experts agree anyone who does not smoke should not start vaping, as it may cause long-term damage to lungs, hearts and brains.

The vapour inhaled contains a small amount of chemicals, often including the addictive substance nicotine.

More research is needed to fully understand their health effects, but in December 2023, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned that "alarming evidence" about the risks they pose was growing.

Illegal vapes are also widely available and are much more likely to contain other harmful chemicals or drugs.

Why is vaping better than smoking?

Cigarettes contain tobacco, tar and a range of other toxic cancer-causing chemicals, and are one of the largest preventable causes of illness and death in the UK.

That is why smokers are urged to stop, with nicotine vapes the most effective quit tool - better than nicotine patches or gum.

Research suggests people using vapes alongside face-to-face support can be up to twice as likely to stop smoking than those using other methods.

But because vaping is not harmless, it is only recommended for adult smokers, who are offered free vape kits on the NHS to help them quit as part of its "swap to stop" programme.

The NHS says thousands of people have given up smoking using vaping.

• NHS: Vaping myths and facts

• Jordan North: How safe is vaping for my health?

How many adults use vapes?

As smoking rates have fallen, the use of vapes has risen, with about 5.1 million people using a vape or e-cigarette in 2023.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) says 5.9% of people aged 16 and over vaped every day, up slightly from the previous year, while another 3.9% did so occasionally.

The group with the highest rate of vape use - nearly 16% - was 16-24 year-olds. But the biggest increase in vape use since 2022 was seen among 25-34-year-olds.

The number of people in England who vape despite never having been regular smokers has increased significantly, according to research published in The Lancet.

It found e-cigarette use among this group has increased from one in 200 people in 2021, to one in 28 - just over a million people.

How many children vape?

It is illegal to sell vapes containing nicotine to under-18s, but their use among younger teenagers has grown.

Nearly 8% of 11-17-year-olds vaped in April 2023, according to an online survey of 2,000 children by health charity ASH (Action on Smoking and Health). That was up from 4% in 2020.

Vaping is now twice as common as smoking among children.

Why are disposable vapes so bad for the environment?

Almost five million single-use vapes were either littered or added to general waste each week in 2023, according to the Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (Defra).

Batteries thrown into household waste cause hundreds of fires in bin lorries and waste-processing centres every year.

As well as lithium-ion batteries, vapes also contain circuit boards which - if not disposed of properly - can leach toxic compounds such as cobalt and copper into the environment as they degrade.

These minerals and the lithium could, if recovered, be reused for green technologies such as electric car batteries or in wind turbines.

In 2022, vapes with more than 40 tonnes of lithium in vapes were discarded, enough to power 5,000 electric vehicles.

However, recycling vapes is not straightforward because of their size and the way they are manufactured, which makes them difficult to take apart.

There is currently no large-scale disposable vape recycling in the UK. There are so many different types of vape on the market that it is difficult to develop a standard recycling process.

Research published in 2023 suggested only 17% of users recycled disposable vapes.

What are the vaping rules in other countries?

The US has prohibited some vape flavours like mint and fruit in particular e-cigarettes.

However, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has reversed the 2022 ban on products sold by Juul, one of the country's biggest e-cigarette companies. It said a full review of Juul's products was pending.

The company previously settled more than 5,000 US vaping legal actions, after being accused of targeting teenagers.

In Australia e-cigarettes containing nicotine are generally available on prescription only, for smokers who want to give up tobacco. And pharmacies do not sell disposable vapes.

New Zealand brought in new rules in 2023, banning most disposable vapes and targeting flavours which appeal to children.

Countries including South Korea, India and Brazil have also brought in very strict vape rules, while China has announced restrictions.

However, 88 countries have no minimum age for buying vapes, and 74 have no laws in place for e-cigarettes, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).