The United Kingdom could impose restrictions on nicotine vapes’ packaging, flavor descriptions and visibility in retail outlets. Government ministers frame the proposals as a “crackdown on vapes targeting kids.” But British harm reduction advocates say the measures would make it less likely that adults will switch from cigarettes to safer nicotine products.
The government launched a 12-week public consultation on July 10, seeking “views on proposals for vapes and nicotine products,” such as limiting the colors of vaping devices to white, black or gray, and mandating plain white packaging with limited branding and images. Heated tobacco products would have to come in a “drab brown color.”
Flavor names could meanwhile be limited to simple descriptors like “apple,” with a ban on “concept and sensory names” and those that relate to desserts or candy.
Other potential changes include restricting retail displays of vapes to the same degree as those of cigarettes, with this measure also extending to airports.
Underpinning the proposed regulations, which would be imposed under new powers granted by the Tobacco and Vapes Act 2026, are findings from the charity Action on Smoking and Health (ASH UK) that around 1 million 11-17 year olds had tried vaping in 2025.
Health Secretary James Murray said in the press release that “too many young people experimenting with vapes” are being “attracted by the array of flavors, bright colours and marketing displays.”
“We want a healthier future for the next generation, so we must act now to reduce the appeal of addictive vapes to our children,” he added.
“Where does that logic end? Plain packaging for beer and wine?”
But tobacco harm reduction advocates aren’t buying it. Mark Oates, director of the consumer advocacy group We Vape, told Filter that the government’s proposals are “wrongheaded.” It should focus instead, he said, on enforcing existing age restrictions that prohibit vape sales to under-18s.
“Where does that logic end?” Oates asked. “Plain packaging for beer and wine? These proposals must be stopped before they become the starting point for even more restrictions.”
Oates urged consumers to respond to the consultation by giving the government a “firm no.”
Advocate Clive Bates, of Counterfactual Consulting, said the research supporting the plain packaging proposal “is risibly weak and inadequate.” It was based, he explained, on immediate responses to questions about how people would react to plain packaging when they were shown different pack designs.
“In the case of questions put to young people, the question isn’t even about what they would do themselves, but what they think others would do,” Bates told Filter.
“None of the research takes account of the longer-term adjustments that such packaging may cause,” he continued, referring to a dampening effect on tobacco harm reduction.
“None of the research—none—estimates what would happen to smoking rates if plain packaging for vapes actually works as intended.”
Bates pointed to the other product that has mandatory plain packaging: cigarettes, the leading cause of preventable death and disability in the UK, responsible for 70,000 deaths annually.
Having two products with radically different risk profiles share the same packaging, he argued, would do little to quell widespread, damaging misperceptions that vapes are as harmful as cigarettes or worse.
“None of the research—none—estimates what would happen to smoking rates if plain packaging for vapes actually works as intended,” Bates said.
Even the premise of vapes causing net harm to young people is dubious, when you consider what youth who vape might be doing instead if vapes weren’t available.
“The government just assumes that vaping is a bad thing, and therefore the plain packaging is justified if it reduces the appeal to young people,” Bates said. “But vaping is displacing smoking in young people, and has been beneficial.”
These proposals come on top of other recent restrictions on vapes—which help the majority of British adults who manage to quit smoking. Single-use vapes were banned in 2025. And from October 1, the Vaping Products Duty takes effect, significantly increasing the price of e-liquids.
“If the government intended to create a policy to confirm that misconception in the minds of the public, the proposals they have suggested are exactly what they would do.”
Advocate Martin Cullip is among the many who were able to quit smoking by switching to vapes. He fears that if the latest proposed measures are adopted, other people who smoke will be deterred from pursuing the same opportunity to improve their health.
People who smoke are already told by friends and colleagues that vaping is worse for you than smoking, Cullip noted, and large numbers of people who smoke believe this to be true. What these measures would do, he said, is validate misinformation instead of correcting it.
“If the government intended to create a policy designed to confirm that misconception in the minds of the public, the proposals they have suggested are exactly what they would do,” Cullip told Filter.
Oates agreed that making vapes less visible and attractive will point adults who smoke in only one direction, perpetuating harm.
“Can you imagine the complexity of asking to buy a ‘DD1’ flavoured vape?” he asked. “You just wouldn’t bother; you’d continue smoking.”
Image (cropped) via United States Food and Drug Administration
