UK smokers will now no longer be able to buy menthol cigarettes, the new law was effective as of May 20th 2020. The ban is part of the EU Tobacco Product Directive laws which were introduced on May 19, 2014.
This ban includes Menthol cigarettes, dual click cigarettes and also skinny cigarettes are being outlawed.
The EU Tobacco Product Directive Laws are for tightening the regulations around different types of Tobacco products, the menthol ban is part of the long-term ambition to make parts of the UK smoke-free by 2030.
This is only affecting Tobacco Cigarettes, it does not apply to vaping Liquid. Menthol E Liquid will become much more popular now, and this is evident as vape companies gear up to accept new customers into their arms.
Hopefully this new ban will be effective, and prevent people from starting to smoke. We also hope that this will encourage menthol cigarette smokers to take their first step with quitting smoking rather than going to normal tobacco cigarettes. This could however lead to a black market of illegal menthol cigarettes, which could be even worse than smoking normal or menthol cigarettes.
Vaping is still 95% less harmful than smoking as reported by Public Health England. In the US, cigarette smoking is responsible for more than 480,000 deaths a year, that’s around 1,300 every day. You can also read our Smoking vs vaping blog for more information.
Ultimately we hope that this ban will stop people from smoking, whether it be people using vaping as a safer alternative or for people to go ‘cold turkey’ and quit the worst addiction to of plagued this planet in the past century.
