Bulgaria’s Parliament bans under-18s from buying and using vapes
Bulgaria’s Parliament voted unanimously on September 5 to approve the second and final reading of amendments to the Child Protection Act that ban the use, sale and offering of smokeless and heated tobacco products to people under the age of 18.
In Bulgaria’s 240-seat National Assembly, 140 MPs present voted in favour of the ban, with none against and no abstentions.
The Child Protection Act already had included a ban on the offering and sale to under-18s of alcoholic beverages, tobacco and related products, with a later amendment to include a ban on the sale to and use of nitrogen oxide (laughing gas) by children.
However, it appeared that the clauses were not being applied or were being misinterpreted, prompting the addition of the vaping ban for under-18s.
Former health minister Kostadin Angelov of GERB-UDF, one of those who tabled the amendments, told Parliament: “The next battle we have to fight together is the battle against the use of energy drinks among teenagers. Maybe that will be the first thing we launch in the next Parliament because the battle for the health of our children is the most important one”.
Parliament also approved an amendment tabled by We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria to ban the advertising of vapes on radio and television.
However, such advertising is ubiquitously visible to children, on places from billboards in streets to Sofia’s metro underground railway system.
(Photo: Lindsay Fox, via Wikimedia Commons)
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