Belgium becomes first EU country to ban disposable e-cigarettes

by Matthieu Demeestere and Jeremy Audouard

Wildly popular with young people for their dizzying array of flavors, 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 percent 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 colorful packaging and the promise of mouth-watering flavors, 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.

"The problem is that young people start using vapes without always knowing their nicotine content, and nicotine is addictive," said Nora Melard, spokeswoman for the Alliance for a Tobacco-Free Society in Belgium.

"We have young people saying they wake up at night to take a puff," she told AFP. "It's very worrying."

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.

- 'Ecological disaster' -

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.

An EU study in 2023 found the majority of e-cigarette users opted for a rechargeable vape but the single-use versions were popular with young people aged 15 to 24.

Easy to use and advertised everywhere on social media, disposable vapes are also attractive for their low cost.

At five or six euros, one single-use vape is half the price of a 20-pack of cigarettes. Some allow for up to 9,000 puffs, the equivalent of more than 300 cigarettes, according to experts.

Many Brussels tobacco shops are running out of single-use e-cigarettes, as renewal is impossible.

"I don't understand why vapes are banned and not tobacco, which is also dangerous," one young user, Ilias Ratbi, told AFP.

Others welcome the ban. "I think it's good to stop selling it," said Yona Bujniak in central Brussels. "There are a lot of young people who start without necessarily thinking about the consequences."

Opponents also point to the "ecological disaster" caused by disposable vapes.

When seeking the EU's approval for its ban, Belgium argued that the plastic single-use vape with its lithium battery usually gets thrown away within five days of purchase.

By contrast, the rechargeable versions can last for around six or seven months.