'Nicotine-free vapes' sold online found to contain nicotine

Some vapes advertised as 'nicotine-free' have been found to actually contain nicotine, a new investigation has found.

The Guardian looked into the matter when alerted by an anonymous buyer who claimed they experienced "withdrawals" after quitting the so-called "nicotine-free" vapes.

"I have been trying to give up vaping so I bought no-nicotine ones," he told the publication. "I have bought them about 20 times and spent hundreds of pounds on them."

He went on to say that he trusted the claims, before reading reviews with many calling the products a "fraud".

The outlet tested seven of the products that consumers claimed to be misdescribed. Only one out of the seven came back with zero nicotine.

Some even had a liquid tank over the legal limit of 2ml.

One "nicotine-free" vape had 12.27mg/ml of nicotine with a 6ml tank, while another contained 13.58mg/ml of nicotine.

The vapes have since been removed and pending investigation.

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It comes after calls for disposable vapes to be banned altogether in the UK.

Science and Technology Secretary Michelle Donelan told Sky News: "We have been looking into this and have been doing a review because this is a very worrying trend that we’re seeing of young children taking up vaping that had never smoked before, and it is extremely dangerous to their health and their wellbeing."

"It’s something that we do need to act on and, as a Government, what we’re trying to do is recognise what are the key challenges and grip them," she continued.

Asked whether the Government will be banning single-use vapes, she said: "We’ll be making further announcements on that."

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