Chinese factories are supplying child-friendly illegal mega-vapes to sell in the UK, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
An undercover reporter posing as a buyer for a British retailer was sent a huge array of disposal vapes that flouted the law and put teenagers’ health at risk.
Some had more than 33 times the legal UK nicotine limit – the equivalent of 2,000 cigarettes – and two-and-a-half times the maximum nicotine strength.
Child-enticing designs offered included toy cars, Super Mario characters, spacemen and milk cartons adorned with cartoon kittens.
Flavours included Skittles, gummy bears, cotton candy and strawberry ice cream.
One manufacturer explained that he could supply vapes with three per cent nicotine but falsely label them as two per cent so they appeared to meet the maximum legal UK strength – and boasted he had done this before for British sellers.
Others offered a choice between ‘white’ – legal – and ‘black’ – illegal – devices and were equally happy to supply either.
Manufacturers offered delivery for bulk orders of up to 10,000 of the illegal vapes, using ‘special’ shipping agents to beat UK customs checks. Another manufacturer offering vapes more than double the legal nicotine strength laughed as he told us: ‘Of course it’s illegal but they will be safe to reach your office’.
Our shocking findings come after experts warned that up to one in three vapes sold in UK shops are feared to be illegal, with most coming from China and many potentially endangering the health of children more.
Last night, the Department of Health described our investigation as ‘shocking’ and pledged to take action to prevent youngsters from vaping.
And campaigners called for an urgent amendment to proposed new laws to ensure all vapes are tested and certified as compliant with UK law before they can be put on sale.
Under current laws introduced to protect children, nicotine liquid in disposable vapes is limited to 2ml – around 600 puffs – of which the maximum nicotine strength should be two per cent.
It’s also illegal to sell vapes to under-18s, and marketing and advertising that targets or appeals to children is forbidden.
But brokers for a range of Chinese vape factories openly offer devices that break these laws as they tout for international sales ‘partners’ on specialist industry internet sites.
Posing as a potential client keen to target younger UK vapers, we contacted seven manufacturers. Every one supplied us vapes that broke UK laws on nicotine strength or quantity – and many were willing to provide designs and flavours attractive to children.
Andrew Bush, professor of paediatrics at Imperial College London, said: ‘Sadly, these findings are totally unsurprising. Laws are only any use if they are enforced and this takes resources. We urgently need to ban all disposable vapes, and protect children from all child-centred advertising.
‘How much longer are the regulators going to sit on their hands while more and more young children are addicted to, and damaged by, these dangerous liquids? If a newspaper can find this out, how come the Government has not?’
Campaigners fear that unless a loophole that allows vape suppliers selling in the UK to ‘self-certify’ that they are under maximum nicotine levels is closed, any crackdown will be futile.
Millions of illegal and potentially dangerous vapes are seized by trading standards every year.
Recent raids in Salford and Durham have found shops selling toy children’s sippy cup-shaped vapes, some adorned with cute cartoon characters and filled with more than ten times the nicotine liquid.
The Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI) says this was the ‘tip of the iceberg’, with a ‘tsunami’ of products flooding into the UK, mostly from China.
Illegal vapes are popular with children because they are cheap and sold in places less likely to check IDs, it warned. Kate Pike, lead officer at the CTSI, described the behaviour of manufacturers exposed by us as ‘outrageous’ and said that officers were doing more to target ports and foreign shipments to try to stop illegal vapes reaching the high street.
Last year, an investigation by the Daily Mail found Britain’s biggest-selling disposable vape – the Chinese-made Elf Bar – was 50 per cent over the legal nicotine limit. Our report led to the vape being removed from shops.
Only the owner of Interplanetary Trade Limited – which sold the kitten-decorated vapes – responded to a request for comment.
He said his actions had been ‘legal and compliant’ in China and any wrongdoing had been committed by anyone buying the vapes to sell on in the UK.
He added: ‘I had no ability to stop those shameless British people from breaking the law and committing crimes.
‘It is like a store selling a kitchen knife and the buyer using it to chop people. Is the store breaking the law?’
China banned the domestic sale of flavoured e-cigarettes in 2022 but continued to allow Chinese-made versions to be shipped worldwide.
However, Kate Pike said that Chinese law does not allow manufacturers to send vapes to countries where they would be illegal.
A Department of Health spokesman said: ‘This investigation is shocking and demonstrates why we are committed to taking action to stop children and young people from vaping.
‘Protecting the next generation from becoming hooked on nicotine will ease pressures on the NHS, and help to give every child a healthy start to life.’
FROM CUTE KITTENS TO VAPES THAT LOOK LIKE CARTOON CHARACTERS
BETAMAX TECH
Samples sent: Six mega-vapes including Cherry Coke Ice and Pina Colada flavoured SnoopySmoke with 15,000 puffs – 25 times the UK limit – and five per cent nicotine strength, two and a half times the maximum. A sales rep asked our reporter: ‘You are selling the black products or the white products? … black product means illegal.’ She was happy to supply ‘black products’ boasting ‘we have many big puff disposables’ and offering some with 20 times the British legal nicotine liquid limits. ‘It should be fine because they will complete clearance in customs, then it goes to you… we’ve never had any problems before,’ she said.
INTERPLANETARY TRADE LIMITED
Samples sent: Kitty milk carton and spaceman with up to eight times the UK nicotine liquid limit. The firm’s boss advertised a range of ‘cartoon toy’ vapes – including a Super Mario – some with more than ten times the UK legal nicotine liquid limit. Saying the flavours taste ‘sweet and fragrant, young people like it’, he was happy to supply bulk orders of specially designed vapes for us to sell on, despite admitting they are ‘not allowed to be sold in the UK’. He claimed his actions had been ‘legal and compliant’ under Chinese laws and that any wrongdoing was by those buying them to sell in the UK.
HONG QING INDUSTRY LTD
Samples sent: Blue razz ice vapes with 20,000 puffs – more than 30 times the UK limit – which our contact says she supplies to the UK. A rep offered high- strength vapes flavoured as gummy bears, blueberry bubble gum, milkshake ice, peach blueberry candy, banana pudding and strawberry ice cream. The rep said she’d shipped 10,000 vapes with 12,000 puffs and five per cent nicotine to a British retailer and spoke of a shipping agent who had a ‘special way to pass the customs’. ‘They will deliver to your door by truck. Very safe, very safe,’ she said.
ZXCD TECH SDN BHD
Samples sent: Manga-style cartoon graphic designed vapes with more than four times the legal UK tank size limit and five per cent nicotine strength. A rep later sent gummy bear, bubble gum, Skittles and cola vapes also with five per cent nicotine. International sales rep Desmond, who is based in Malaysia, said similar devices had already been sent to the UK. ‘Of course, it’s illegal,’ he added, ‘but they will be safe to reach your office.’ He offered to update designs for the UK market with images of a red phone box and a London bus driving past Big Ben.
OVNS (SHENZHEN) TECHNOLOGY LTD
Samples sent: 21 samples, all illegal in the UK, including gummy bear flavours with 3,000 puffs, and a Skittles flavoured vape with 10,000 puffs, more than 16 times the British limit. Telling our undercover reporter that ‘we don’t mind’ the illegal vapes being sold in the UK, the rep said they could ship an order within two days. When asked about the risk of them being seized at customs, she said: ‘No issues have happened before. I can’t say it’s 100 per cent guaranteed… but the risk is very low.’
BASKET STAR LTD, HONG KONG
Samples sent: Bubble gum flavoured toy cars with three per cent nicotine, 50 per cent above the legal UK limit. A rep said there would be ‘no issues at all’ breaking UK vape laws. He outlined a simple trick to avoid maximum nicotine strength laws: ‘In order to stay with three per cent nicotine, we print “two per cent” on our package,’ he said. He suggested pink toy car vapes in lychee flavour as the best to target children and offered to sell us 30,000 and ship them to our door. He said: ‘Basically, the UK is really open to the e-cigarette industry.’
SHENZHEN VPLS TECHNOLOGY CO LTD
Samples sent: ten vapes all exceeding UK nicotine liquid limits and two-and-a-half times over the nicotine strength limit. Asked if he could supply vapes that break the UK laws, sales rep Selim Hussain replied: ‘Yes. No problem. We have all the documents.’ He explained how he had already supplied these devices to UK clients. ‘You send us an address, I can deliver,’ he said.