Stockton Council seizes hundreds of colorful illegal vapes

Stockton Council’s Trading Standards team has seized hundreds of illegal and potentially dangerous vapes, most of which were colorful and depict cartoons seemingly to target children. The confiscated haul equates to around 1.5 million puffs on an e-cigarette.

As per recent local reports, among the 800 disposable e-cigarettes that were seized, a huge number seem to target children with cartoon characters on the packaging and flavours like bubble gum, double apple and icy cola. Some of the disposable vapes resemble colourful highlighter pens in their design.

None of the seized products have been authorised by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). As per norms, vapes should not contain more than 2 ml of e-liquid and the actual nicotine content of the e-liquid itself should not exceed 2 per cent.

“A number of these products are clearly designed to be attractive to children, and are potentially harmful to health,” councillor Bob Cook, leader of Stockton Council, said warning the parents.

“Thankfully hundreds of these illegal e-cigarettes have now been removed from sale, but there may be others out there.