Dear Dr Mounier-Jack,
I am contacting you from Milieu Ltd as we have just received a urgent request from the European Parliament to conduct a study on electronic cigarettes. Although they still have not sent us the official terms of reference for the study, I already wanted to check with you whether this is something that you would be interested/available to work on or if you know someone that would be.
In essence, the Parliament is looking for a briefing, which should cover the following aspects:
- Who is the standard user of this type of cigarettes
- What is the influence of electronic cigarettes on smokers decisions to quit smoking, switch to electronic cigarettes, or start smoking (electronic cigarettes)
- How does the market for this type of products look like
- What is the legislative context (e.g. in some countries they are banned, in others it seems that they could soon be sold as a life-saving medicine)
- Possible indicators to assess the health impacts of electronic cigarettes
As this is a relatively new phenomenon, I suspect that not much literature exist and a lot of the work will consist in gathering and analysing data. Please see this recent article from NewScientist that provides a bit of background:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21729053.900-tobacco-giant-wants-to-help-you-quit-smoking.html
The Parliament would want this analysis to be conducted quite quickly. Most probably the deadline for the draft report would be around mid-April.
We do not have much more information at this stage, but I would appreciate your feedback at your earliest convenience on whether this is something of your interest.
Thank you in advance for your attention.
Kind regards,
Monica Guarinoni
Senior Policy Advisor
Milieu Ltd - Law & Policy Consulting
15 rue Blanche | Brussels 1050 | Belgium
T. + 32 2 506 1000 | F. + 32 2 514 3603 | Skype: milieu_mg
Visit our website at
www.milieu.be
www.linkedin.com/company/milieu-ltd
