The fight for children's health and the environment

Wednesday, Apr 9, 2025

European nations are banning disposable e-cigarettes due to health and environmental concerns, while others consider restrictions.

🔗 Read the article on h-alter.org


[This is an automatically generated summary, for reference only]

Several countries are implementing or considering bans on disposable electronic cigarettes due to health and environmental concerns. Belgium banned them on January 1st, 2025, citing harm to society and the environment. France followed with a ban in February, while the UK plans to enforce its ban starting June 1st, driven by rising youth usage rates. Poland has drafted legislation aiming for a complete ban, anticipating its adoption in late 2025, and also plans to tax reusable e-cigarettes. Lithuania is restricting flavored products and e-cigarette refills containing sugar or sweeteners. Austria’s initiative stems from waste management concerns regarding the disposal of batteries. Health authorities in Croatia state that e-cigarettes can be as harmful as conventional cigarettes due to toxic compounds affecting respiratory and cardiovascular systems. Internationally, Australia restricted all e-cigarette sales exclusively to pharmacies, positioning them as therapeutic aids for quitting smoking.


🔗 Read the original article

© 2026 Pulse - Europe beyond the beat


PULSE is an initiative for cross-border collaborative journalism in Europe co-funded by the European Commission under Grant Agreement n. PO 4500158093.

PULSE is an initiative coordinated by OBCT that has been promoting intensive journalistic cross-border collaborations in Europe since 2024. Its main aim is to help strengthen the European public sphere by reporting on and telling stories from new and diverse perspectives.

At the heart of PULSE are 10 leading national news outlets (Delfi – Lithuania, Deník Referendum – Czechia, Der Standard – Austria, EfSyn – Greece, El Confidencial – Spain, Gazeta Wyborcza – Poland, HotNews – Romania, HVG – Hungary, Il Sole 24 Ore – Italy, Mediapool – Bulgaria) and three transnational organisations, including OBCT , n-ost and Voxeurop .

Additional outlets and journalists are involved as associate partners, including EUobserver , Føljeton (Denmark), H-Alter (Croatia), Levila (Estonia), Rubryka (Ukraine), and The Journal Investigates (Ireland).

PULSE is driven by a sort of virtual transnational newsroom made up of journalists from all the publications involved. It collaboratively produces new journalistic content on European issues on a daily basis, coming in many different languages. The editorial output amounts to over a thousand publications per year, mostly in article form.

PULSE also runs 4 thematic networks open to any European journalist interested in crucial issues such as EU enlargement, relations between the EU and other global powers, the EU’s green transition, or media and the information society. These networks function as online communities and periodically publish calls for pitches.