This is what’s described as an “endgame” approach. While many tobacco control strategies—such as taxation or gory imagery—aim to reduce consumption, policies like the UK’s are designed to eliminate it entirely. It’s a new approach, and no one knows whether it will work.
The Maldives was the first country to implement a generational smoking ban, in November last year. It’s too soon to say how that has panned out.
Nor do we know if these laws will even last. In 2022, New Zealand passed a similar generational sales ban as part of a broader anti-smoking law. But it was never enacted—the law was repealed by a new government in February 2024.
In the UK, both major parties support the ban. But Nigel Farage, whose right-wing party has seen a recent surge in support, has promised that “the generational smoking ban will not last long if Reform gets the chance to start rebuilding our mismanaged country.”
Chris Bostic, an attorney and former policy director for the advocacy group Action on Smoking and Health, says he and his colleagues began promoting the idea of a generational ban in the United States 11 years ago. Back then, they struggled to win support, even from major health charities. “People said we were crazy … [and] that this was impossible,” he says. Opponents argued that bans would infringe on personal freedoms.
“The public health argument is: Well, what about freedom from addiction?” says Britta Matthes, a tobacco control researcher at the University of Bath in the UK. Most people who smoke began when they were teenagers, want to quit, and wish they’d never started. Tobacco is arguably the most harmful consumer product of all time. It will kill half its users who don’t quit, according to the World Health Organization.
It also kills people who don’t smoke. Of the 7 million who die from tobacco every year, 1.6 million are nonsmokers who were exposed to secondhand smoke, according to the WHO.
Things that look “too good to be true” invariable are just that.
This example got dangerously hot in a short period of time before dying.
There’s no legitimate charger that comes close to delivering on the 1,000W promise.
Being a tech reviewer for a living means that I get offered some very interesting things. Not interesting as in Bugatti supercars or jewel-encrusted Fabergé eggs, but interesting as in “this thing could easily be a fire hazard — want to take a look?”
Submissively, I often say yes. And I’m glad I did with the most recent pitch, because it was very interesting indeed.
Meet the “interesting” charger
This time around, the thing of interest was a charger that claimed to deliver an incredible 1,000W through its ten ports — four 140W USB-C ports, four 100W USB-C ports, and two 20W USB-A ports.
The person who bought this charger told me that they’d plugged it in, used it to charge their phone for “a few minutes,” got worried when it became “a little hot,” and unplugged it.
That’s a lot of promise… but (spoilers), they don’t deliver!
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes/ZDNET
The unit was suspiciously light and plasticky, especially given its built-in power supply. Compare this to Ugreen’s Nexode 500W charger, which weighs a hair under 5 lb.
There was also a slight whiff of melty plastic, which made me think that this had been a bit more than a little hot.
Color me suspicious, but I had a gut feeling that the only way this charger would be able to push out 1,000W would be if it caught fire.
Turns out I wasn’t far wrong.
How long would it last? Answer: Minutes
Talk is cheap. It was time to test the charger.
So I plugged it in, turned it on, and started using it. Within a couple of minutes of starting to use it, I noticed a few things:
No matter what I tried, I couldn’t persuade the charger to deliver more than about 60W from any of the ports.
As for peak output, I managed to get close to 250W.
The power output was very uneven and noisy, fluctuating wildly. The more ports I used, the worse it got.
The unit got very hot to the touch very quickly, even under light loads.
But… before I could get the thermal camera out to check how hot it got, there was a pop and the unmistakable smell of “Magic Smoke.” The charger had been sent to Silicon Heaven within minutes.
Annnnd… POP! This is the moment the charger gave up the ghost.
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes/ZDNET
Diagnosis time
Time to take it apart and have a look inside. For an item that plugged into the mains power, this unit was shockingly easy to take apart.
A thin sheet of easily removable plastic is a that separates curious hands from live AC power.
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes/ZDNET
And even unplugged and broken, it was capable of delivering zaps! If the case came off while this was plugged into an outlet, it could very easily be deadly.
There’s charge still in some of the capacitors, and these could deliver quite a zap despite the unit being broken and unplugged!
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes/ZDNET
After getting inside, the unit was filled with a grey goo that I’d seen in a previous disappointing charger I’d taken apart. This is a thermal paste that’s used to try to dissipate the heat generated by the components.
It’s not really going to work because it’s sealed in a plastic box with no effective heatsink. It’s a token gesture at best. At worst, it creates a mass that’ll slowly heat up and hold temperature because it’s got no way to get rid of it.
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes/ZDNET
Next to this goo was a bank of capacitors — the black cylinders in the photo — which were the cause of the failure. They’d clearly overheated, with three of them showing signs of bulging.
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes/ZDNET
Well there’s the problem!
I also noticed that two of the components — bridge rectifiers that are used to turn AC mains into DC — have been fixed on an angle to make the touch a metal heatsink. It’s not really an effective way to cool down components.
Moral of the story here is that manufactures are using big number marketing — in this case 1,000W and masses of ports — to scalewash poor quality products.
This might be a half-decent product if it was built to deliver 100W, but there’s no end of competition at that end of the market. Silkscreen “1,000W” on the outside, sprinkle in a few reviews that feel scripted and fake, and all of a sudden it’s interesting and exciting… right up until it blows up.
I know of no 1,000W charger. In fact, the 500W Ugreen Nexode is the highest-power charger that I’ve tested that’s legit. And the price is also legit — $250.
But it’s built to deliver on what it promises and is packed with safety features, including “tip-over protection,” which cuts the output when the unit tips over and prevents it from falling on its side, where it can’t dissipate heat effectively. Now that’s an attention to safety that I like to see in a product that handles that much power.
But if you want 1,000W of output, you’ll have to buy two and duct tape them together.
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