Disposable vapes have recently surged in popularity – but the trend may not be harmless as it seems
They`re everywhere. They're in the manicured mitts of young professionals, perched in the terraces of Instagrammable cocktail bars. They`re furtively suckled by students huddled in the corners of local pubs. They`re the source of the cherry-scented miasma fogging up smoking areas across the nation. They are, of course, Elf bars.Like elf bar 600.elf bar 5000.
The disposable vapes have soared in popularity in recent months. In the last quarter of 2021 the UK's leading online vape platform IndeJuice saw a 279 per cent increase in sales of disposable vapes, with Geek and Elf bars emerging as the most popular brands. Young people are particularly taken with disposable vapes: one recent study found that fewer than 1 per cent of 18-year-old vapers used disposables at the start of 2021, rising to around 57 per cent in January 2022. On TikTok, the hashtag #elfbar currently has nearly 600 million views.
26-year-old Elle started using Elf bars in December. She explains that she`d previously been using a reusable Juul, but continually buying new pods quickly became expensive, prompting her to look into disposable options. She adds that she`s found Elf bars have made it easier for her to stop smoking cigarettes. [I had smoked since I was about 18," she tells me. [But since using Elf bars I`ve fully stopped smoking. I`ve had, like, two cigs in 2022 which is crazy because sometimes if I was on a night out I`d chain smoke 30 cigs."
