Junior health minister Vincent Karremans is looking into the options for increasing the legal age to buy cigarettes and vapes from 18 to 21, he told MPs on Wednesday.

Karremans is also looking at making it a criminal offence to offer vapes with flavoured liquids for sale and increasing the fines for those caught breaking the law, he said at he launch of an action plan to tackle smoking and vaping among youngsters.

The vape problem in the Netherlands, the minister said, is extremely serious and he aims to “do what he can” to tackle it. Last year the government banned the sale of flavoured vapes.

But Karremans said there are “extremely worrying” signs that youngsters are still able to buy them via shops, dealers and social media channels, and said the illegal sales need to be tackled.

“I am working on draft legislation which would make it an offence to keep a supply of flavoured vapes, so sellers can no longer get away with having them at all,” he said. The product safety boad NVWA said on Wednesday it had confiscated 180,000 vapes this year so far.

Esther Croes from addiction clinic Trimbos Institute said the new strategy is essential, and welcomed the news that the minister is looking into increasing the minimum age to buy cigarettes and vapes.

“The younger they are, the more vulnerable brains are to nicotine,” she said. “The younger you become addicted, the harder it is to deal with addiction for the rest of your life. If you don’t smoke or vape until you are 21, you are much less likely to become addicted.”

It would also be a sensible move to ban all nicotine products in order to keep one step ahead of the tobacco lobby, she said. “Soon we will end up with nicotine lollies and jelly sweets, and we’ll have to start all over again.”

The Dutch health ministry is also urging Brussels to impose “comprehensive restrictions on flavours, maximum nicotine levels and plain packaging” on e-cigarettes and other nicotine products, European news website Euractiv reported this month.

The Dutch also want the EU to establish a legal framework for cross-border distance sales of new tobacco products, arguing that these allow consumers to bypass national restrictions.

Research

Research by the Trimbos addiction institute shows that one in five young people under the age of 25 uses a vape, and 70% of them also smoke tobacco cigarettes. The age limit of 18 for using vapes is also widely flouted, and internet sales have flourished.

At least 14 children were hospitalised in 2024 as a result of using vapes, and paediatricians suspect many more children are experiencing health problems.

Research has also shown that some vapes popular with teenagers are packed with toxic metals, cancer-causing chemicals, and a much higher level of nicotine than legally allowed.