Act now
Respond to the public consultation while there is still time to influence the debate.
Grassroots campaign
Fight the vaping ban.
Save Vaping is a campaign organised by the New Nicotine Alliance to oppose the UK government's proposal to ban vaping and heated tobacco use in public places. The campaign is aimed at adults who use these products, business owners, and anyone who cares about freedom, evidence-led policy, and harm reduction.
The government wants to ban vaping and heated tobacco use by law everywhere smoking is currently banned: all workplaces, all pubs, all clubs, and specialist shops. There is no scientific justification for treating these products like smoking in law. It will be bad for business, bad for public health and bad for adults who use reduced-risk alternatives. Please respond to the public consultation today and write to your MP.
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Write locally
Use the MP tool to turn national policy into constituency pressure and direct political cost.
What the government proposes
A ban on vaping and heated tobacco use in public places would be a major policy shift
The consultation proposes making indoor places where smoking is already banned vape-free and heated tobacco free by law. That would be a major change for people who vape or use heated tobacco products, those who are thinking of switching from combustible tobacco, the businesses that serve them, and the wider public understanding of harm reduction.
It undermines harm reduction
Treating vaping and heated tobacco products like smoking sends the wrong public health signal and risks discouraging switching to reduced-risk alternatives.
It is not evidence-led
Policy should follow evidence on the relative risks of vaping and heated tobacco use, not symbolism or pressure to look tough.
It hits independent businesses too
A blanket ban would affect specialist vape shops, hospitality venues, and other businesses that serve adults who use these products.
It is unfair and illiberal
Adults who use these products should not face sweeping new restrictions without a clear, proportionate case for doing so.
Why oppose it
Why we oppose the proposed ban
The case against the ban is simple: it is bad for health, bad for business, unsupported by evidence, and unjustifiably restrictive.
Health
A ban on vaping and heated tobacco use will lead some people back to smoking and will deter smokers from switching to reduced-risk alternatives because:
- it will remove an advantage that these products have over smoking
- it will send a message to smokers that vaping and heated tobacco are as bad as smoking, compounding existing ignorance about the relative risks
- if they have to go outside to use these products some people will conclude that they might as well smoke
This is a pro-smoking policy that will be bad for health.
Scientific
There is no credible evidence that secondhand e-cigarette vapour is a health risk, and the available evidence on heated tobacco does not justify treating these products like smoking:
- the government says secondhand vaping may be harmful to bystanders, but its own impact assessment says the evidence is still developing
- Public Health England says there is no evidence of harm to bystanders from exposure to e-cigarette vapour
- Public Health England also says e-cigarette use is not covered by smokefree legislation and should not routinely be included in smokefree policies
- compared with cigarettes, heated tobacco products are likely to expose users and bystanders to lower levels of particulate matter and harmful and potentially harmful compounds (HPHC).
Scientific evidence does not support treating vaping and heated tobacco like smoking in public-place law.
Economic
A ban on vaping and heated tobacco use will impose costs on businesses in several ways:
- the government's own impact assessment estimates one-off costs of more than £530 million, including new signage and familiarisation costs
- a ban will drive some people who use these products away from hospitality venues or make them go less often
- staff will have to confront customers to enforce an unreasonable law, and proprietors will carry the compliance risk
This is an anti-business policy that the government admits will cost more than half a billion pounds without any economic benefit.
Freedom
A ban on vaping and heated tobacco use would be an unjustifiable infringement on liberty:
- the proposals would remove the right of people to use these products in millions of buildings
- business owners would no longer be allowed to set their own policy and millions of adults would lose an important freedom
- the government has not shown that this draconian law would deliver a single economic or public health benefit
The government should respect personal freedom.
Take action
Two actions matter most right now
If you oppose the ban, the two most important steps are to respond to the consultation and write to your MP.
Respond to the consultation
Send a response to the Department of Health and Social Care consultation opposing the proposal to make indoor smoke-free places vape-free and heated tobacco free by law in England. Do not be put off by questions which ask for new evidence, your lived experience is evidence in its own right, so please feel free to tell your stories.
Write to your MP
Use the postcode lookup to find the right constituency and copy a message you can adapt around freedom, evidence, harm reduction, and business impact. We have provided some example text you can adapt to cover vaping and heated tobacco in your own words.
What experts say
These statements support the case against treating vaping and heated tobacco like smoking in law.
"International peer-reviewed evidence indicates that the risk to the health of bystanders from exposure to e-cigarette vapour is extremely low."
"e-cigarette use is not covered by smokefree legislation and should not routinely be included in the requirements of an organisation's smokefree policy."
"Distinguish between smoking and vaping: Conflating vaping with smoking is harmful to health."
"It is very important that smokefree legislation does not include vaping. Vaping is a harm reduction approach for adult smokers trying to quit smoking. Policies that deal with smoking and vaping in the same way send a very confusing message."
"Helping people switch from smoking to vaping should be considered a priority if the Government is to achieve a smoke-free 2030 in England."
"While health risks of e-cigarettes to vapers themselves have been estimated at up to 5% of health risks of smoking, health risks to bystanders are most likely reduced by a much bigger margin, and most likely altogether. This is because e-cigarettes release no chemicals into the environment themselves, only what users exhale, and such exhalation has so far not been shown to generate any toxicants at levels that could conceivably affect the health of bystanders."
"However, if this approach also makes e-cigarettes less easily accessible, less palatable or acceptable, more expensive, less consumer friendly or pharmacologically less effective, or inhibits innovation and development of new and improved products, then it causes harm by perpetuating smoking."
Final action
Take the argument into your constituency.
Once someone understands the case against a ban on vaping and heated tobacco use in public places, the next step is simple: find their MP, personalise the message, and apply pressure locally.