ECR MEP Martin Callanan has hit out after the European Parliament voted to heavily over regulate many electronic cigarettes, in a move that he warns is likely to send e cigs users back to more harmful tobacco.
MEPs today held their final vote on the Tobacco Products Directive, which sets out a number of measures to discourage younger people from taking up smoking, such as larger pack warnings and a ban on flavourings. However, MEPs have also voted to introduce 14 pages of new red tape on e cigs (which deliver nicotine using vapour to avoid many of the harmful side effects of smoking such as tar, smoke and carbon monoxide). The new rules will ban refillable e cigs (which comprise a large component of the e cigs market), if only three EU countries ban them. It would also restrict all but the weaker e cigarettes (20 mg/ml nicotine), which would risk cigarette users going back to cigarettes in order to achieve the same nicotine hit .
Mr Callanan has fought a long campaign for e cigarettes to be regulated in a manner proportionate to the evidence that exists on them. He has received thousands of emails and letters from users who argue that the products have enabled them to move off of tobacco.
Last October, when the matter first came to a vote in the parliament, Conservative MEPs fought off efforts to force e cigs to undergo a medicinal authorisation procedure that would have placed many small manufacturers under threat. However, despite the vote of the parliament in favour of e cigs, the Commission and a few MEPs took it upon themselves to add a whole new article to the directive during the late night closed doors negotiations between the parliament and national governments seeking the agreement necessary to pass the proposals into law.
Speaking after today’s vote, which is expected to become law by 2016, Mr Callanan said
«E cigs are not healthy, but they are surely far better for you than smoking tobacco. We have fought for sensible regulation on e cigs that recognises the role they have played in taking many thousands of people off of smoking.
«The parliament voted for e cigs to be lightly regulated until we know what regulation might be required. Yet sneaky MEPs and commission officials sneaked a whole raft of red tape into back room negotiations without discussing them with e cigs users or other MEPs. We have drafted huge parts of this law on the back of a fag packet with decisions about smoke filled rooms ironically being made in smoke filled rooms in Brussels.
«The majority of the Tobacco Products Directive is on the zealous end of the scale but we could have accepted it. However, what we could not accept is the draconian restrictions on e cigs that were adopted. I believe we have completely failed to deliver the aim of discouraging smoking. By making it harder for smokers to get hold of e cigs of the strength they require, we just increase the chance of them resuming smoking tobacco.»
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As usual the truly evil money grabbing tits in the eu are after out hard earned money. You may or may not agree but its abundantly clear to me and many others that both the EU and our so called government are out to make us brits and in fact everyone everywhere as miserable and down in the dumps as is humanly possible and by banning e cigs its just another way of ensuring their evil can use the scanerio that by banning e cigs they make certain we buy cigarettes so ensuring we become ill and worse case scanerio get cancer that way we have to reply on their medical corporations to hopefully cure us of the disease which of course is in reality designed to kill my advice to anyone who does use e cigs is if you are in a position to do so buy in bulk and buy big. Get as many batteries cartomisers etc as you can and fill up with PLENTY of it can be expensive but consider the alternatives? It was always on the cards if somethings good for you or a better alternative you can be absolutely certain both our evil greedy governments and the eu in general will ban it, dont forget these entities are truly evil and get a kick out of making us ill financially broke and dead.