Shopkeepers should embrace disposable vapes ban as consensus grows, Green MSP claims

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Shopkeepers need to get behind the “growing consensus” for a ban on disposable vapes by sticking the polluting gadgets behind screens, a Green MSP has said.Gillian Mackay, who backs the Daily Record’s campaign to outlaw single-use vapes, said a ban is “badly needed”.But ahead of the outcome of a Scottish Government review, she said retailers should in the meantime ensure kids aren’t picking the products up off shelves by putting them behind the counter like cigarettes.The Scottish Greens’ health spokeswoman also urged shops to raise awareness of the legal purchase age of 18 and clearly advertise return points to stem massive levels of vapes litter.It comes after Mackay joined the Daily Record for a vapes litter pick in Falkirk on Monday to mark World Environment Day - where, over an hour, we found a piece of e-cigs litter roughly once every 50 seconds.Meanwhile, Scotland’s leading child doctors have become the latest group calling for disposable devices to be banned amid fears over the health impacts of the teen vaping craze.Mackay said: "Disposable vapes create a huge amount of waste.

You can see it on every high street in the country. They are bad for our environment and for our health."I am delighted to see such strong and growing consensus against them, and look forward to working with the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) and others to ensure that we can introduce the ban that is so badly needed."In the meantime, there are lots of steps that retailers can already take, such as ensuring that they are hidden from public view, like cigarettes, and highlighting how and where they can be responsibly disposed of in store."Speaking to BBC Radio Scotland, the Central Scotland MSP also claimed