A vape shop owner has said that the Government’s plan to ban flavoured vape will likely put him out of business.
TDs are considering the Public Health (Tobacco Products and Nicotine Inhaling Products) (Amendment) Bill 2026, which will ban the sale of all but tobacco and unflavoured vapes in Ireland.
The aim is to reduce the appeal of vapes, which the HSE warns are linked to mental ill health and damage to the user’s heart, lungs and blood vessels.
On The Claire Byrne Show, OB Vape owner Eoin O'Boyle said he has owned his Drogheda shop for eight years and worries about the impact of the legislation on his business.
“If the flavour ban goes through, unfortunately, we'll have to go out of business because 95% of our customers use flavours,” he said.
“There was a recent, I think a Red C poll that showed up to 60,000 people could go back smoking as a result.
“So, I'm not coming here today saying vaping is the most incredible thing ever.
“I just think there needs to be a little bit more balance about the argument.”
A teenager vaping on the street. Picture by: Steven Gill / Alamy.Also on the programme, Professor Marcus Butler of the Asthma Society of Ireland said the full impact of vaping is not yet known, but is likely catastrophic.
“From studies that have been done in short-lived animals and in cellular experiments, we can predict the harms of vaping coming down the track,” he warned.
“I'm particularly concerned about flavoured vaping because the heating of these compounds results in the formation of new compounds.
“When you subject them to heat, they generate an entirely new wave of toxic entities that we can predict would be harmful to structures in the body.
“We think there's an epidemic coming down the line in the lifetime of humans, which takes much longer to see this evidence from flavourings.”
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Advocates of vaping say any restrictions are likely to increase the number of people who smoke.
However, Professor Butler said he works with smokers every day and sees parallels between the two practices.
“[Smokers] never intended to have disease from what they thought was a legally available commercial product,” he said.
“They're just using it as it's intended by the manufacturer; they're the victim in all of this.
“And the commercial power behind the vaping industry is trying to hoodwink people by introducing health arguments.”
Professor Butler added that while he “empathises” with Mr O’Boyle, there are much safer ways to quit smoking than taking up vaping.
Main image: A vape shop. Picture by: Alamy.com.
