Why We're Speaking Up
We've Helped Thousands of People Quit Smoking. A New Consultation Could Undo That.
Every day in our Leicester and Coventry stores, we talk to people who've swapped cigarettes for vaping and never looked back. A Government consultation now open could make it much harder for the next person to make that same switch — so we're backing a campaign to stop it, and we want you to know why.
The proposal
The Department of Health and Social Care wants vapes sold in plain white packaging, with grey devices, single-word flavour names, and displays hidden away like tobacco. It's being consulted on now, and by the sound of it, this is just the opening move — flavours themselves could be next.
Where we stand
Nobody in this industry wants to see kids vaping, us included — we ID every sale, in-store and online, and we'd support tougher enforcement of the under-18 sales ban all day long. That law already exists. What's missing is enforcement, not more restrictions on adults who are trying to quit smoking.
Making vapes look and feel like cigarettes doesn't stop young people getting hold of illegal products from bad actors. It does, however, risk convincing smokers that vaping isn't really any different — and that's the opposite of what the evidence shows.
Vaping is estimated to be around 95% less harmful than smoking, and Government figures show 2.7 million ex-smokers used a vape during their last successful quit attempt. Plain, medicalised packaging risks eroding the one thing that's helped millions of people switch: the sense that vaping is genuinely different from the habit it replaces.
The consultation closes 11:59pm, 2 October 2026. Once it's shut, the decision is made — whether or not vapers had their say.
Our part in this
We've contributed to Save Vaping, a campaign led by our friends at Riot Labs, built specifically to get vapers' voices into this consultation before the window closes. We're pointing you to it because it does the job properly — MP lookup, a guided walkthrough of the consultation itself, and a public record of people affected — and because more voices means a better chance of being heard.
Three things you can do, all under five minutes
Email your MP
Pop in your postcode and it's drafted for you. MPs listen to their own constituents — that's you.
Respond to the consultation directly
This is where it's actually decided. There's a box-by-box guide to help you answer it properly.
Add your name to the Relapse Register
A public record of people who say these changes could push them, or someone they know, back to smoking.
Save Vaping is an independent campaign led by Riot Labs, which Touch of Vape has contributed to and supports. This page contains no product advertising and nothing here is an offer to sell. Strictly 18+. Sources: DHSC consultation “Tobacco and vapes: packaging, appearance and display” (10 Jul 2026); ASH survey data 2026.