EU EU update

[Orb Skewer]

ECITA proposals to EU Commission

 

[AgentAnia]

Dr. Polosa comments on the TPD:

Lets face the truth, decisions in the area of tobacco products are always and exclusively made for financial and not health reasons. | Save e-cigs

 

[AegisPrime]

Dr. Polosa comments on the TPD:

Lets face the truth, decisions in the area of tobacco products are always and exclusively made for financial and not health reasons. | Save e-cigs

A sign of things to come for those that don't think e-cigs will be legislated against:

From 1st January 2014 e-cigs will be regulated as tobacco products (in Italy). Measures will include: excise taxes, lengthy bureaucratic process to obtain marketing permission from the national tobacco authority, vaping bans in public places, and advertising bans. No scientific debate was allowed, no input from vapers and their families was taken into consideration, the political agenda being “destroy e-cigs as soon as possible”. These draconian measures are already driving the prosperous and active national e-cig industry outside Italian borders, thousands of vape shops are closing, and current vapers will either have to turn into black market to stay off tobacco smoking or return to their own tobacco brand. Italy is well known for its lengthy legislative processes. For the e-cigs this was completed in less than 6 months!

Terrible

 

[supertrunker]

Italians will ignore that nonsense in the same casual fashion that income tax is optional! I'm only part joking.

I did just want to point out the most telling part of Viscount Ridley's speech is this:

The Minister confirmed to me in a Written Answer earlier this year that the best evidence suggests that they are 1,000 times less dangerous than cigarettes. The MHRA impact assessment says that the decision on whether to regulate e-cigarettes should be based on the harm that they do. Yet that very impact statement says that,
“any risk is likely to be very small”,
that there is,
“an absence of empirical evidence”
and “no direct clinical evidence”, that “the picture is unclear”, and—my favourite quote—states:
“Unfortunately, we have no evidence”,
of harm.
There is said to be a risk of children taking up e-cigarettes and then turning to real cigarettes. Just think about that for a second. For every child who goes from cigarettes to electronic cigarettes, there would there have to be 1,000 going the other way, from e-cigarettes to cigarettes, for this to do any net harm.

(my emphasis). So that's goodbye to all the 'gateway' nonsense i hear in this country then!

T

 

[Orb Skewer]

Italians will ignore that nonsense in the same casual fashion that income tax is optional! I'm only part joking.

I did just want to point out the most telling part of Viscount Ridley's speech is this:

The Minister confirmed to me in a Written Answer earlier this year that the best evidence suggests that they are 1,000 times less dangerous than cigarettes. The MHRA impact assessment says that the decision on whether to regulate e-cigarettes should be based on the harm that they do. Yet that very impact statement says that,
“any risk is likely to be very small”,
that there is,
“an absence of empirical evidence”
and “no direct clinical evidence”, that “the picture is unclear”, and—my favourite quote—states:
“Unfortunately, we have no evidence”,
of harm.
There is said to be a risk of children taking up e-cigarettes and then turning to real cigarettes. Just think about that for a second. For every child who goes from cigarettes to electronic cigarettes, there would there have to be 1,000 going the other way, from e-cigarettes to cigarettes, for this to do any net harm.

(my emphasis). So that's goodbye to all the 'gateway' nonsense i hear in this country then!

T

The most damning word in that 'written answer' from the Minister I have highlighted in red above-it says it all (from their angle)

 

[AegisPrime]

The most damning word in that 'written answer' from the Minister I have highlighted in red above-it says it all (from their angle)

Actually, the Viscount was quoting the MHRA (Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency) which unfortunately is the agency that's going to be regulating e-cigarettes in the UK

 

[NorthOfAtlanta]

Actually, the Viscount was quoting the MHRA (Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency) which unfortunately is the agency that's going to be regulating e-cigarettes in the UK

I would think the MHRA spokesperson thought the Viscount was on their side and told the truth about their position on this.

 

[supertrunker]

The reason is like a FOI request - as a member of Parliament he is entitled to a written truthful answer - 14 days as a member of the upper house there.

Whatever side they think him on is irrelevant to their duty to furnish him with an answer in that time. The truth of that answer was "we don't know!". The MHRA is just a government agency, part of the Health department and it can only rule on the safety of medicines, which of course is what the UK has decided to classify e-cigs as.

If they are classed as tobacco products in the US, medical devices in the UK, and maybe consumer devices elsewhere, then long haul plane flights are about to become fascinating.

T