My First Reply From MEP's

[MarkS]

Starting my own thread for this as I do not want to hijack Thundercat's thread.

I sent out some emails regarding the proposed legislation by the EU regarding e-cigs and my concerns, and just received my first reply.
Living in London there were 8 MEP's listed so I emailed all of them as well as my local MP.
In the Email I also attached Doodlebug's information leaflet.

It's the Green Party MEP who replied first, albeit a very brief reply.

Dear Mark,

Thank you for your email.

Greens favour effective regulation of the tobacco industry on public health grounds.

However, you raise some important points about personal vapourisers / electronic cigarettes, which I have now raised with my colleagues on the relevant parliamentary committees working on this legislation.
Please bear in mind that this is still at an early stage of the legislative process and that the Commission's proposal to revise the Tobacco Products Directive also relates to a number of other issues.

For more information, please visit

europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-12-1005_en.htm

Thank you again for your email. Please let me know if you would like me to send you regular email updates about my work as London's Green MEP.

Yours sincerely,

Jean Lambert MEP

Green Party Member of the European
Parliament for London

So a condensed version of the circular really.

 

[Sandra (aka Chillax)]

It's good that you did write to them. the more the better.

[thundercat]

See, they are in a mind set that makes them believe they make decisions for us. Its the other way round matey.They do stuff that we want them to do."Greens favour effective regulation of the tobacco industry on public health grounds." Irrelevant what you believe in, its what we want that counts.

This is whats going wrong.

In general though its a fair answer.

[MarkS]

I completely agree. All MP/MEP's put the interests of their party first rather than those of their constituents.

Going to reply, but just trying to think of the wording to use so as not to come across as arrogant.

[Karma]

Well done for writing Mark!

I think a few of us are a bit despondent about the replies we received

You may find this helpful to send or just to take some info from

ecita.org.uk/a4%202%20sided%20handout%20feb%202013.pdf

[MarkS]

Thank you Karma

I've already attached the handout to all the emails I sent this morning as it explains it a lot better than I can.

[thundercat]

Keep it polite and to the point. Dont rant- thats what here is for haha.

[MarkS]

My Reply:

Dear Jean

Firstly thank you for taking the time out to read and respond to my email and passing on my concerns to the relevant parliamentary committees. It is very much appreciated.

I am glad to hear that the Green Party believes in effective regulation of the tobacco industry on public health grounds as that is exactly my concern regarding electronic cigarettes. Public Health.

I believe the proposed regulations in limiting nicotine levels to just 4mg or labeling the products as medicines would not be in the interests of public health, as it would render them useless and unappealing to current and new users looking for an alternative to smoking cigarettes.
Therefore many would return to the much more harmful and toxic conventional combustible tobacco products and many would never make the switch at all.
I also believe that such restrictions would create a black market and thus endanger those who would still choose to vaporise their nicotine outside of the new laws.
So again not very beneficial to public health interests.

I really do appreciate your reply and yes I would like to receive regular updates about your work as London's Green Party MEP.

Just to add you are the first of the London MEP's to respond to my concerns, so kudos for that too.

Regards

Mark

[tracerace1]

I know i;m new here, and excuse me for being forthright...BUT,,,in my smoking days i was a mod on the forum freedom2choose! what a joke that was when it came to parliament and mp's mep's etc....They are all out for numero uno! Firstly their own party and a close second...Themselves!!!!!!
You all forget its one law for them and the total opposite for us poor B*****ER'S!!!!
They smoke and drink themselves stupid in the parliamentry BARS...
One of our guys was friendly with an mep, iwont say who but he took him into the house of commons Bars/Clubs, where he secretly filmed the whole lot of em puffing on big fat cigars, cigs etc.....While us poor sods have to go out in the cold!!!
I Love Vaping, but feel your batting your head against a brick wall, with them lot.........UKIP's Nigel Farage is the only one of the whole lot of em willing to stand up for the great British Public.............
Any ways rant over, and well done to you mark mate for trying..

Yours......Fuming lol T

[MarkS]

I more or less agree with you, except the Nigel Farage bit. I'm a member of the Great British Public and he doesn't stand up for me.

But anyway Hi and welcome....But I won't be discussing personal political persuasion if it's not to do with e-cigs in this thread anymore though.

[tracerace1]

Thanxs for the welcome Mark, i do agree lets leave politics out of it.....I know we'll just spend more time Vaping whilst we can lmao

T

[thundercat]

Mark I thought that was a brilliant reply.

And a particularly outstanding rant from T.

[MarkS]

My second reply and I don't think I am even going to bother replying to this one as they obviously did not really bother reading my initial email. It looks like it was skimmed over and the words Smoking, Tobacco & E-Cig where seen and then they responded.

I feel any kind of response would also be lost on them.

Dear Mr Shaw,

Thank you for your email and the attached leaflet.

As you are aware the Tobacco directive is currently under renewal.

The directive will be coming before the Environment, Public Health and
Food Safety Committee at the European Parliament for consideration
shortly. At this stage the proposals by the European Commission include
regulating packaging and the composition of cigarettes and related
products including electronic cigarettes.

My personal opinion is that I recognise that there are health
implications to smoking and believe that there should be public
awareness but once informed, there should also be freedom of choice.

That said this freedom should not impinge on the freedom of others so a
programmatic solution must be found. Smoking has health implications for
smokers but science has proved that there are also implications for
passive smokers as well. Advertising and the presentation of smoking at
present needs to be looked at and I believe that this directive will do
just that.

More than ten years have passed since the adoption of the current
directive on the issue, during which time various developments have
occurred. In response to this, I look forward to making concrete
contributions towards the proposed directive when the time arrives.

With reference to your specific comments on electric cigarettes the
directive will look at this aspect, and I myself would be very
interested in the scientific background that specifically relates to the
health effects before making any judgements.

Kind regards,

Marina Yannakoudakis MEP

[Davy Tee]

Keep fighting Mark, well done for getting involved in the front line of things. If you need an Archer give me a shout

[MarkS]

Hi theblackarrow (I'm sure I used to drink in a pub in Norfolk of the same name?)

Well quite a few of them could do with an arrow up the jacksy couldn't they?


Anyway I have replied after all, although it will probably be skim read again and the point totally missed.

Dear Ms Yannakoudakis

Thank you for taking the time to reply to my email. It is very much appreciated.
Although I do feel that my concerns expressed in my previous email have been over looked and barely addressed.

I'm fully aware of the health risks of smoking and passive smoking and the science behind them, and I was not questioning nor disputing those risks.
In fact I was outlining them.
Which leaves me a little perplexed at your reply concentrating mainly on those areas?

My concern is the proposed regulations regarding Electronic Cigarettes which I had highlighted in my previous email and attached a leaflet containing much more detail.
The leaflet also includes reference to studies showing that e-cigs are in fact up to 99% less harmful than combustible tobacco products.

If you really are interested in the science behind Electronic Cigarettes from an unbiased source. Then I cannot do much better than provide this link to a recent article from the American Council On Science And Health:
www.acsh.org/opinion/the-eus-new-tobacco-directive-protecting-cigarette-markets-killing-smokers/

Once again I would like to thank you for taking the time to reply and would hope that as one of your constituents my concerns have been taken on board.

Regards

Mr Mark Shaw