EU sets new rules for e-cig users

EU sets new rules for e-cig users

Overruling national governments, the European Parliament defeated proposals to classify e-cigs as medicines, potentially greatly restricting their availability.

Instead they insisted that e-cigs with a nicotine content of 20mg/l or less should be regarded simply as consumer products.

E-cig manufacturers will have to ensure that refillable nicotine fluid containers are childproof and that spillage can be prevented, but a wide range of flavours will continue to be available.

National government ministers insisted that e-cigs with a stronger nicotine content should only be available if classified as pharmaceuticals, arguing that nicotine is an addictive substance.

MEPs also agreed new rules to beef up the warnings on cigarette packs, with bigger pictures and harsher words for smokers.

Health warnings will now take up 65% of the surface area of a cigarette packet after studies show that this has an impact on existing smokers and acts as a deterrent to young people thinking of starting.

http://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news-headlines/85629/eu-sets-new-rules-for-ecig-users

A bit more in depth here and it would seem things are not as rosey as the above article makes out.



Users warn EU e-cigarette controls could cost lives


http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/image...ette_getty.jpg
E-cigarettes are an increasingly popular alternative way of getting a nicotine hit




Supporters say electronic cigarettes are saving thousands of lives, detractors believe they could be dangerous and are making smoking seem sexy.

But following a decision in the European Parliament their availability will be restricted in the future.
MEPs voted to introduce new regulations which will control what kind of e-cigarette can be sold in member states.

Smoking experience

The e-cigarette gives people a nicotine hit without the toxins that are present in tobacco cigarettes.
For many smokers they have been the key to them giving up as they replicate the smoking experience much better than nicotine patches, gum and sprays.
But some doctors have been concerned that there may still be long-term health problems from using them.
Some campaigners also fear that e-cigarette use in public is normalising smoking again and may end up being a gateway to tobacco for young people.


The European Parliament hasn't banned their use. But it is going to impose restrictions on the kind of e-cigarette that can be sold.
In particular, users - or vapers as they call themselves - will no longer be able to get some of the reusable and refillable devices that deliver the biggest nicotine hit.
The growing community of vapers believe it's an assault on a product that is saving their lives by removing the temptation of tobacco.

Improving health

Christena Heseltine from North Shields in Tyneside has been using e-cigarettes for five years.
She credits them with improving her health, but she also enjoys them. Her daughter Kirsteen is another user, and husband Ron, who has terminal oesophageal cancer, has recently joined them.
It's unclear whether smoking caused his cancer but vaping has allowed him to continue to enjoy nicotine without smoking.
Christena is outraged at the European Parliament's decision. She thinks it'll ramp up costs for vapers but also make it impossible to obtain the high-nicotine devices she often uses.
She says many frustrated users will go back to smoking, while others - her included - may look to the black market.

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/image...7_73255396.jpg
Kirsteen, Ron and Christena Heseltine all swapped tobacco for e-cigarettes

She said: "I'll be forced to break the law, become a criminal, and that is scary.
"The vaping community has worked hard to make sure it's as safe as possible. We have worked with trading standards to ensure the nicotine juices are safe and properly labelled.
"But now if I go to the black market, I won't know whether the nicotine I'm getting is safe, so the work we have done will have been for nothing."

Wrong direction

Vapers did have some allies in the European Parliament. North East Conservative MEP Martin Callanan, fought against the EU proposals, and is disappointed most of his colleagues backed them.
He said: "This is going in completely the wrong direction. E-cigarettes have the ability to convert thousands of smokers to vaping as they call it. That is a thousand times safer than smoking tobacco cigarettes.


"As a harm reduction measure we should be encouraging people to take up e-cigarettes not making it more difficult to obtain them. This is a very bad day for public health."
Others though believe the EU measures are sane and sensible.
Fresh North East was set up in 2005 to tackle the problems caused in an English region with the highest death rates for smoking-related diseases.
They do see a role for e-cigarettes in weaning people away from tobacco, but have been concerned about how they've been advertised.
Director Ailsa Rutter believes the regulations won't stop e-cigarettes being available for the people that want them.
She said: "These regulations are really quite light-touch. Elsewhere in the world, some people want them banned and Fresh certainly wouldn't support that.
"What we want to see is them being even better quality and safer. We are concerned about children getting hold of them at the moment. Some may have very high doses of nicotine in them, in others people may be being ripped off as they have no nicotine present at all.
"From a consumer perspective, this is a step in the right direction."
None of that will cut much ice with the vaping community though. They believe the freedom to enjoy e-cigarettes is under assault.
But more importantly they also feel the EU has undermined what they see as the most successful way of cutting the number of smoking-related deaths.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-26370871

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhZgowUOXB4#t=11

It seems it's ok to to vape in the European parliament without anyone going off on one.

Interesting move. TBH they had to do something, just to clarify things.

Without going into a deep and meaningful story... I smoked from an early age right up until about the age of about 29 or 30. This included smoking cannabis. Then i decided in myself that enough was enough and I was going to quit. So I had a week off work, locked myself away in my flat and stopped, cold turkey. It was hellish. Not a million miles different from scenes in Trainspotting!

After a week of being off the booze (I felt I had to stop drinking as well intially otherwise i'd have no hope at all!) dope and fags I was over it. Then I decided I would put myself deliberately in situations where I would normally smoke to "force" myself to break the habits side. This wasn't as hard as I thought and I was good. After a few weeks I was on top of the world and nicotine free.

Fast forward nearly 7 years... Something weird happened, it was just before Christmas and I was unloading the weekly shop from the boot of my car, when I had an overwhelming urge for a cigarette. I still can't explain it. I was stressed at the time, imminantly due to split up with my GF at the time. So off I went an picked up 10 benson and was back on the salmon again...

I didn't really regret it, I actually was enjoying it like I used to. I wasn't smoking any cannabis, just tobabco.

What annoyed me this time round, aside from the whining of my new GF (now wife), was the cost of it all. I enjoyed it, and didn't actully want to stop so "cold turkey" wasn't gonna work. Cheap fags were crap, imports and duty free were crap... In the end vaping was my only choice.

I used vaping as a quitting aid. It meant I could get my fix, not smell like an ash tray and it was cheap. Jester was the one advised me what kit to get started on etc, as well as a few DF'ers. I took to it no problem at all, started with very strong mix liquids, then slowly worked down the strength until I was barely vaping at all. In the end two Christmasses back I threw all my vaping gear away and I've been clean again for well over a year.

My point to this "short" story is that I'm surprised that the EU don't legislate it more in line with other stop smoking aids. After all, it does work if used correctly. No different to patches or gum. Both of which kids can get hold of, so that risk will always be there. In fact it's probably easier for kids to actually smoke! And I am sure they do, just like I did...

I would rate vaping as safe, cheap and a great way to get off real cigarettes, even if you maybe don't even want to. Don't get me wrong some people don't get on with it at all, but I think a lot now will.

As for it being sexy, fuck off. You look a right dickhead with a big black tube with a blue light on the end in your mouth...


DJ OD

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DJ Overdose

As for it being sexy, fuck off. You look a right dickhead with a big black tube with a blue light on the end in your mouth...


DJ OD

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Just wait for them all to have incorporated MP3 players then the youth will be hooked.

They can brand, justify,advocate, condemn and defend this all they like, but ultimately it's all about coins in the coffers by one route or another :(

Quote:

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Originally Posted by I Black Belt

They can brand, justify,advocate, condemn and defend this all they like, but ultimately it's all about coins in the coffers by one route or another :(

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Agreed. My opinion is that within five years, e-cigs will cost 90% of what fags do......for one reason or another.

Crystal ball time, but I think that the government has the following problems developing:

Tax income reduces as people move to e-cigs - reduction in income.
People living longer - increase in spend on pension and benefits
People dying of long term medical conditions relating to old age, rather than short term smoking related medical conditions that finish you off relatively quickly - increase in healthcare spend

The government must be privately quaking in their boots about the e-cig revolution, so they'll have to do something about it. Couple that with the sheer intensity and might of the tobacco industry means that the price of e-cigs will sky rocket due to tax or some other reason that we don't believe but will not be able to do anything about.

Oh well :)