E-cigarettes face new restrictions

[Bald Bouncer]

Electronic cigarettes will be licensed as a medicine in the UK from 2016, under new regulations.



The UK currently has few restrictions on the use of e-cigarettes, despite moves in some countries to ban them.

The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency says it will regulate e-cigarettes as medicines when new European tobacco laws come into force.

Sales of tobacco-free cigarettes have boomed worldwide since bans on smoking in public places were introduced.

Campaigners say the growing popularity of e-cigarettes could undermine years of anti-smoking efforts.

In some countries, such as New Zealand, e-cigarettes are regulated as medicines and can be purchased only in pharmacies.

In other countries, including Denmark, Canada and Australia, they are subject to restrictions on sale, import and marketing. Complete bans are in place in Brazil, Norway and Singapore.

E-cigarettes are designed to replicate smoking behaviour without the use of tobacco. They turn nicotine and other chemicals into a vapour that is inhaled.

But there have been growing concerns about the safety and quality of e-cigarettes.

Jeremy Mean of the The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said the government had concluded that e-cigarettes currently on the market do not meet appropriate standards of safety, quality and efficacy.

Not recommended

He said there would be no compulsory licensing of the products until 2016 but until then they were not recommended for use.

He told a news conference: "We can't recommend these products because their safety and quality is not assured, and so we will recommend that people don't use them."

The MHRA had decided not to ban the products entirely but to work towards a position where they are licensed, he added.

"Smoking is the riskiest thing you can do - we want to enable people to cut down and quit - we don't think a ban is a proportionate action."

The health campaign body, Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), said the action will ensure promotion to children or non-smokers is prohibited.

Deborah Arnott, chief executive of ASH, said: "MHRA regulation can ensure that adult smokers can continue to be able to buy e-cigarettes as easily as tobacco, but promotion to children or non-smokers will be prohibited."

The British Medical Association, which has called for stronger regulation of e-cigarettes, says health professionals should encourage their patients to use a regulated and licensed nicotine replacement therapy (such as patches or gum) to help quit smoking.

It says health professional may advise patients that while e-cigarettes are unregulated and their safety cannot be assured, they are likely to be a lower risk option than continuing to smoke.

Research suggests around 1.3m smokers and ex-smokers use e-cigarettes. Once licensed, they will remain on sale over-the-counter.

Source: BBC News

[Ashley]

Guess the government wants a tax from them too.

[Bald Bouncer]

Guess the government wants a tax from them too.

That plus no doubt heavy lobbying by the tobacco industry *cough* brown envelopes

[{{909}}]

obviously its a tax they want more control of, but there does need to be more regulation, when I was back in the UK last month, loads of the people I know had switched to e-cigs and they were all getting them from China though some bloke down the pub. I wouldn't inhale anything that is unregulated, especially some cheap shite bought in China.

[Ashley]

obviously its a tax they want more control of, but there does need to be more regulation, when I was back in the UK last month, loads of the people I know had switched to e-cigs and they were all getting them from China though some bloke down the pub. I wouldn't inhale anything that is unregulated, especially some cheap shite bought in China.

Nearly every corner shop sells them now and like you say are probably all smoking crap.

[evilsatan]

My first thoughts were pressure from tobacco firms but it also does make sense to regulate something which is inhaled regularly. No doubt something will be brought in during these restrictions making them less attractive/accessible to appease tobacco firms.

[Mr.James]

Tobacco firms should be looking at changing their business model. These things will kill the tabacco industry if they are a cheap cancer-free alternative way of maintaining an addiction.


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[WRATH OF BOD]

i have been vaping for about 3 years & i can see it costing me about 5 times more than i pay now, i spend on average £15 per month at the moment. thats not including replacement hardware.
i have used Liberty flights all that time, we have 2 e-cig shops opened up in our town in the last 2 months, 1 only buys from liberty so i use them too.

[Hangman]

I've just started using VIP, and luckily the company behind the website is based locally so I can nip down and avoid paying postage.

[philmein121]

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=plJpz_ARFTc

Not all eliqud from China is shite

[{{909}}]

A flashy well produced video means fucking nothing, China is corrupt on a massive scale and no one gives a flying fuck if they are selling poison in a bottle as long as they're getting a hefty cut out of it. As much as we moan about the straight banana bullshit the EU implies on us, I'd rather have that than the shite I see here every day.

These companies are busting a nut to get their stuff onto the international market because the market in China is zero, no body uses e-cigs here because you can smoke whereever you like and cigs are well under a quid a box anyway.

[blacksheep]

There's a reason that the higher up Chinese officials have their food sourced from specialists that the public don't have access to. Whilst restrictions are no doubt help out the tobacco industry they help the end user far more - this is no different to pharmacies sourcing medicines from reliable manufacturers rather than dodgy Indian sources or restrictions that were passed for bread flour >100 years ago so that too many nutrients weren't stripped out.