Minors proposed to be banned from entering vape shops
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The fight against harmful steam continues in Moscow
Moscow City Duma deputies continue the war against vapes. This time they are focusing on introducing new bans that will make these smoking products less accessible to minors, the main consumers of the vapor. During a round table held within the walls of the capital’s parliament, they proposed tightening legislation in this direction, including generally banning children from stores that sell nicotine delivery devices, as well as introducing a mechanism for extrajudicial blocking of sites selling dubious smoking mixtures.
Almost 10 years ago, anti-tobacco legislation was introduced in the country, which introduced restrictions on the circulation and consumption of cigarettes. During this time, the share of those who quit smoking increased from 10% to 17%, and by 2022 the share of smokers decreased from 41% to 33% (by the way, this figure has been at a standstill since then). At the same time, however, the vaping market is growing: from 2019 to 2023, the use of products in this segment increased 4 times.
The harm of vapes was not immediately identified, but in 2020 they were equated to tobacco products. A ban was introduced on their open display in retail outlets, discounts outside stores and pavilions, and a ban on sales to minors. In addition, the law prohibits the consumption of these products by minors.
But the prohibitions are not always observed and not everywhere. In 2023, the capital’s Rospotrebnadzor identified 68% of violations at sites selling nicotine-containing products. The Chairman of the Moscow City Duma says that since June last year, social activists have installed billboards with information about all current prohibitions at almost all points of sale in Moscow. There are QR codes on the billboards. 105 complaints have already been received, including 18 regarding the sale of vapes to minors. 23 individual entrepreneurs received warnings. However, such actions have little effect on the situation as a whole.
But most of all, the round table participants are concerned about the situation with the remote trading of vapes; here, no rules are observed at all. From the end of last year and the beginning of this year, social activists carried out the “Vape Control” campaign and identified 471 violations: potentially dangerous sites, pages and channels where such products are either sold (70%) or advertised and popularized their use. Here no one asks the age of buyers, does not demand to show a passport, does not ensure the closed sale of products, does not follow the rules for their labeling. “The laws are not respected here because there are no effective measures to enforce the prohibitions,” says Shaposhnikov.
The Moscow City Duma has developed a package of legislative initiatives that propose to introduce a direct ban on the dissemination of information about distance selling of nicotine-containing products in the media and the Internet. Other proposals are to introduce a mechanism for extrajudicial blocking of the mentioned sites and establish fines for violators. Now blocking is possible only through the courts, which takes at least three months, and during this time the sites themselves cease to exist.
Another radical proposal is to introduce a complete ban on minors in stores that sell vapes.
Experts are also concerned about the problem of children smoking in schools. Today, responsibility for this extends only from the age of 16, and if the child is younger, he can only have preventive conversations or registration with the commission for minors. During 2023, 11,623 minors were brought to administrative responsibility for smoking, and another 71 adults were punished for involving children in this process (8 of them were parents). According to expert estimates, up to 90% of vapes on the Russian market are counterfeit from China, but already every fourth person smokes them. And their main consumers are teenagers and young people. Most often they choose them because of their attractive sweet tastes. According to surveys, girls now smoke more than boys. Schools have already gone so far as to remove doors or remove latches in toilets in order to prevent smokers from escaping. Representatives of educational authorities complained that children often smoke under the auspices of their parents, and they tell teachers that there is no nicotine in vapes, just vapor. The only way out of the situation is considered to be the inclusion of this topic in “Conversations about Important Things.”
During the round table, it was noted more than once that the problem of vaping compositions is not being resolved quickly enough: regulations on the requirements for what substances are allowed in them have not yet been adopted. There is not even a draft of such a document yet. Parliamentarians decided to appeal to the Government of the Russian Federation with a proposal to speed up the adoption of a list of substances prohibited from being added to vaping products. And they add a lot of things to counterfeit products. For example, a substance used to poison ticks was found in vape liquid 4 years ago. In addition, as a representative of the capital’s Rospotrebnadzor said, last year toxic, carcinogenic, and allergenic substances were found in smoking mixtures for vapes in Moscow, and E. coli was found in hookah mixtures.
At the same time, as one State Duma deputy said, children die every month from smoking vapes (the latest case occurred in Shcherbinka). Last year, Rospotrebnadzor inspected 27 thousand points where such products were sold and found violations in 91% of cases. The violators were given three months to eliminate the shortcomings, but every second one did not even think about doing this. In this connection, there was a proposal to sharply (10 times) increase fines for violations in the vape trade, but for now fines for individuals are only 500 rubles.
Some restrictions on the trade in vapes have already been introduced: from December 1, 2023, a ban on the sale of unlabeled products was introduced, and from March 1, production and distribution activities are subject to licensing. But the event participants proposed not to stop there – to license the sale of such products.
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