“There is no foolproof strategy to prevent young people from taking up vaping — sad but true.”
This is the message the Vapour Products Association of SA shared during its oral submissions to the health portfolio committee in parliament on the proposed tobacco control bill.
The bill proposes to ban indoor smoking and vaping in public places, introduce plain packaging for all tobacco products, regulate vaping like traditional cigarettes, ban in-store displays of these products, and raise the legal purchasing age to 18.
The association’s CEO, Asanda Gcoyi, told the committee that banning vapes would not solve smoking problems, while emphasising that the association was concerned about youth vaping.
“We wouldn’t have started youth initiatives as early as 2021 and done what we have done if we didn’t care about this area [youth]. We responded appropriately and we launched the YAP [youth access prevention] campaign, we have updated our members’ code of conduct to include package guidelines, product labelling restrictions, and so on,” she said.
We are willing to subject ourselves to a framework that is controlled and that will ensure that we safeguard young people.
— Asanda Gcoyi
Gcoyi said the youth access prevention guidelines include “clear communication on the age, online age gates and staff training, and we keep identifying gaps on strengthening the framework to protect young people”.
She said the association was working tirelessly to ensure the limited access of vapes to young people and that young people are not getting vapes from their members.
“Our research reveals that there is a lot of proxy buying that happens; adults and parents are buying on behalf of their minor children and we have informal channels were people are buying a large quantity of vapes for reselling at a higher price. And we also found that fuel stations and supermarkets are responsible for selling these products,” she said.
Gcoyi said: “We are willing to subject ourselves to a framework that is controlled and that will ensure that we safeguard young people.”
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