Green councillors have called for a total ban on disposable vapes over the apparent "environmental and health crisis".

Oxford city councillors Lucy Pegg and Rosie Rawle will present their motion during a full council meeting in the town hall at 5pm tonight to request that leader Susan Brown writes to the government supporting a UK ban by 2024.

The NHS states on its website that vaping is not completely harmless but "only recommends it for adult smokers to support quitting smoking and staying quit".

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It continues: "Vaping has not been around for long enough to know the risks of long-term use.

"While vaping is substantially less harmful than smoking, it is unlikely to be totally harmless."

Meanwhile, the Green motion states: "Far from helping smokers to quit, with their attractive packaging and child-friendly flavours, disposable vapes are getting a new generation addicted to nicotine.

"Frequently littered and hard to recycle, disposable vapes are also causing damage to the natural environment and wasting critical materials."

The Green Group requests the cabinet member for Zero Carbon Oxford and Climate Justice and the cabinet member for planning and healthier communities "investigate ways the council can encourage retailers selling disposable vapes in Oxford to provide recycling facilities for vapes in their stores".

A study led by the University of Oxford last year found "the strongest evidence yet that e-cigarettes, also known as ‘vapes’, help people to quit smoking better than traditional nicotine replacement therapies, such as patches and chewing gums".