‘It will send ex-smokers back to cigarettes’ - Louth vape shop owner criticises flavour ban
The owner of an independent, family-run vape shop in Drogheda says the vape flavour ban passed by the Seanad on Wednesday will force his business to close, push ex-smokers back to cigarettes and hand the market to big tobacco.
Louth vape shop owner Eoin O’Boyle has criticised the vape flavour ban passed by the Seanad yesterday.
Mr O'Boyle is the owner of OB Vape, an independent, Irish, family-run vape shop in Drogheda which as been trading for eight years.
He is a former spokesperson for Vape Business Ireland and made a submission to the Oireachtas on vaping regulation in 2022.
Mr O’Boyle said he believes this ban will force his business to close, push ex-smokers back to cigarettes and hand the market to big tobacco.
Yesterday 28 of the 35 Senators who voted backed the ban. Once the President signs the bill and the Minister for Health commences it, only two flavour names will be allowed on vapes in Ireland: "Tobacco" and "Unflavoured".
Fruit, dessert, drink and sweet flavours will go, and so will menthol and mint. Words such as "Ice", "Cool" and "Fresh" will be banned.
"This is barbaric," Mr O’Boyle said. "28 Senators voted for this in the face of every bit of evidence that it will send ex-smokers back to cigarettes, create a black market and flood the country with illegal, unregulated product.
“A Minister for Health who pushes people who quit smoking back towards cigarettes has no business calling this a health measure.
"There is no version of my shop that survives selling one tobacco flavour and a wall of identical devices. When this ban comes in, OB Vape will almost certainly have to close, and so will most of Ireland's independent, Irish-owned vape shops."
Speaking on The Claire Byrne Show on Newstalk on Wednesday morning, Mr O'Boyle was asked whether the ban amounts to "the revenge of big tobacco".
"I have virtually no big tobacco products in my shop," he said. "When the specialist vape shops are gone, the only people who benefit are big tobacco and big pharma. The places left selling nicotine will be the convenience stores and garages, and they're the ones selling cigarettes.
"Some of my customers are in their seventies and eighties. They smoked for decades and finally quit with a flavour they actually enjoy. Take that away and a lot of them will go back to cigarettes. That's not a health policy."
Mr O'Boyle says he supports tough rules, including plain packaging, real enforcement against underage sales and getting vapes out of shops that sell them beside sweets, but not a ban on the flavours ex-smokers use.
He said: "The Minister still has the power to add flavour names by regulation before this comes in. I'm asking her to add menthol and other adult flavours. It's the one thing left that could stop thousands of people going back to smoking."