The UK government has opened a public consultation on regulations that would require e-cigarettes to be sold in plain packaging, limit device colours to white, black or grey, and ban flavour names evoking sweets, desserts or alcohol. The Department of Health and Social Care said the proposals aim to make vaping less attractive to children while preserving the products’ role in helping adults quit smoking. Health Secretary James Murray stated the 12-week consultation is intended to ensure that “children and young people don’t get drawn into vaping in the first place.”

The move is supported by research. A study led by University College London and King’s College London, involving 2,770 children aged 11–18 and nearly 4,000 adults, found that when shown standardised packs with simple flavour descriptions, the proportion of young people who thought their peers would be interested in trying the product fell from 53% to 38%. Adult interest remained unchanged. Separate polling for the charity Action on Smoking and Health indicates that 19% of 11–17-year-olds in Britain have tried vaping.

In Canada, where a federal ban on flavoured vapes has been promised for five years but not implemented, commentator David Clement points to Health Canada data showing past-30-day vaping among 12–17-year-olds fell by more than 60% from its 2019 peak to 6% in 2024, while daily youth smoking is below 2%. He argues that enforcement of age-verification—using mystery-shopper programmes that have lifted compliance above 90% in US states—would be more effective than a flavour ban, which risks pushing adult smokers back to cigarettes. A 2023 study of nearly 70,000 adult vapers in the Harm Reduction Journal found that those using flavoured e-cigarettes had more than double the odds of quitting smoking.

Russian authorities are pursuing a harder line: the health ministry reports a tenfold increase in teenage smoking after online vape sales were permitted, and regional legislatures have introduced bills to ban vape sales in kiosks and prohibit minors from hookah lounges. Some officials warn a total ban could fuel an illicit market. Meanwhile, the consultation model itself faces a structural challenge in parts of Europe. In Sweden, an opinion piece in Göteborgs-Posten notes that party membership has collapsed from 19% of voters fifty years ago to 2% today, leaving what the author calls “dangerously few representatives” to shape such regulatory decisions.

The UK consultation will gather views over the next 12 weeks. The government has said the final regulations will be informed by the responses, with implementation to follow. No date for entry into force has been set.