Belgium has become the first European Union country to enact a ban on disposable vapes, with others expected to follow. The ban took effect on January 1.
Belgium’s health minister, Frank Vandenbroucke, previously used an array of familiar arguments as justification for the move. He branded disposables “extremely harmful,” and said they produce “hazardous waste chemicals.” He described them as designed to get “new consumers” addicted to nicotine—a substance, he said, which is “bad for your health.”
Yet Belgium’s smoking rate has declined substantially in the period when disposable nicotine vapes, among others, have been available and popular. Vapes are demonstrated to facilitate smoking cessation, as the Belgian government acknowledges when it comes to refillable products.
Proponents of disposables as harm reduction tools note that nicotine is not the cause of smoking-related disease and death, while disposables’ ease of use and low start-up costs make them a particularly accessible way to switch from cigarettes, especially for low-income populations.
“Public health is gaining massive wins but the public perception is that we are creating whole new generations of nicotine addicts.”
Environmental concerns can be addressed by better recycling provision and development of more sustainable products, they argue; the cigarettes that vapes replace also have environmental impacts. Youth uptake is widely exaggerated, they add, but can be mitigated by better implementation of existing age restrictions.
“’Youth epidemic’ is all we ever hear about, even though nicotine usage is the lowest in decades amongst teens,” Tim Jacobs, a vape consumer who owns a vape manufacturing, distribution and retail business in Belgium, told Filter. “Public health is gaining massive wins [because of vapes] but the public perception is that we are creating whole new generations of nicotine addicts with safer nicotine products.”
Belgium has a goal of reaching “smoke-free” status—less than 5 percent of the population smoking—by 2040. Despite this, the country already banned online sales of vapes in 2016, and more restrictions could be in the pipeline.
Though the disposables ban only just came into force, a new government report shows that many vape sellers, particularly in the capital, Brussels, aren’t complying. This has resulted in one lawmaker, MP Els Van Hoof, calling for the ban to expand to all non-tobacco flavors, which, she said, “make vaping seem enjoyable and healthy.” She submitted a bill to do this, which Belgium’s Chamber of Representatives is currently reviewing.
Most adults who switch from cigarettes find non-tobacco vape flavors most helpful in doing so. Enjoyment, tobacco harm reduction experts say, is central to getting more people to adopt the healthier option.
“The anti-vaping voices are always saying the product is targeted at younger people with all flashy flavors,” commented Jacobs, who lives in Antwerp. “However, why do we have an age restriction then? Everything starts with a proper enforcement of that.”
Vandenbroucke has described Belgium as “playing a pioneering role to weaken the tobacco lobby,” and urged the rest of the EU to follow suit. Momentum is on his side.
Belgium also banned nicotine pouches in 2023, though they reportedly remain available in many shops. So it’s been a series of blows to safer nicotine products, despite repeated evidence of their importance for people looking to quit smoking.
Vandenbroucke has nonetheless described Belgium as “playing a pioneering role in Europe to weaken the tobacco lobby,” and urged the rest of the EU to follow suit.
Momentum is on his side. In the past year, EU bodies have called for vaping in public spaces to be banned, and discussed a potential bloc-wide ban on flavors in safer nicotine products.
In terms of individual EU countries, Ireland and France are both set to ban disposables, and they are among at least 12 nations calling for more vape restrictions.
Meanwhile the United Kingdom, a former EU member, will also ban disposables starting in June. A new study—“England’s disposable vape ban: An inadequate solution to youth vaping with potential unintended consequences”—has criticized that impending prohibition.
“A ban may protect the environment but, alone, is unlikely to substantially reduce youth vaping and may have unintended consequences,” the authors noted, including “a disproportionate impact on disadvantaged groups that have higher rates of smoking and typically find it harder to quit.” They called for policies that better balance the desire to reduce youth vaping with the need “to ensure that affordable and accessible smoking cessation support, including vapes, remain available.”
Whether other EU countries implement their own disposables bans like Belgium could soon become a moot point. The EU Batteries Regulation, adopted in 2023 and expected to take effect in 2027, states that batteries in portable devices must be removable and replaceable by users. Disposable vapes do not meet that requirement.
So their availability across the EU—at least legally, when bans boost illicit markets without consumer protections or age restrictions—is under imminent threat.
Photograph by Wesley Fryer via Flickr/Creative Commons 2.0