From 'Gazet van Antwerpen' of 18th March (translated from Dutch)

Electric cigarette is life threatening

Dutch cardiologists sound the alarm about the Supersmoker, the electrical cigarette from Brussels. These e-cigarettes would sometimes contain such high doses of nicotine they causes palpitations. In Belgium, the Supersmoker is prohibited, but the Internet sales flourish. The Dutch Ministry of Public Health calls together with the Heart Foundation and the Asthma Foundation for accelerated research into the safety of the e-cigarette. The Supersmoker would sometimes contain nicotine doses that were nineteen times those of normal cigarettes. The Supersmoker was introduced last year in our country as "healthy alternative" for the ordinary cigarette. It contains no tar, but still nicotine, and produces no smoke but vapour. Philip Bauvin of the Federal Agency for Drugs and Heath products (FAGG) is not surprised by the alarm.

"Belgium has prohibited the electric cigarette immediately. Not only Supersmoker, but all e-cigarettes. The capsules in the cigarettes are medication but do not have the registration. The cigarette itself, we see as a medical device, but the device lacks the CE mark(*). The chance that they get this recognition is nil. Unfortunately, we have no control on the Internet. "

According Bauvin he immediately saw that the stuff was dangerous. "I have from the beginning said that the dose of nicotine in the capsule can be lethal for a child. Nicotine is a alcaloïde. If a child would inhale two of those capsules, it may die. "
E-cig proves this so called lack of CE mark on their website, the chances of obtaining this recognition are indeed nil, they already have the CE mark:



Bauvin means E-smoking products will never get medical approuvement, that is the reason to treat it as medicine. So he can ban it without having to give one single arguments why.

Here's my reaction (one of many)

I have steamed my electric cigarillo all over here in England, France and even in banned Belgium, and received only positive feedback. How could it be otherwise, the product provides no disruption to the environment and the people around you, but only gives me the user some nicotine. It is a relatively unknown product. This means that I get a lot of questions from bystanders who are curious and eager to learn, and (only in Belgium) people in a nearly state of panic who are proclaiming the most outrageous stupidities. Mr. Bauvin is apparently deliberately causing this panic. " If a child would inhale two of those capsules, it may die", eeeeh. If a child would gulp two bottles of whisky down it’s throat it may also die. Fortunately for you Mr Bauvin, no one ever died of stupidity yet.