Finaly sent letter toMP&MEP'S

[robdelmar]

After several drafts that I was not happy with finaly sent one based around BlackwaterVaper's and a piece from Stobart Driver's over on UKV ,a big help so thanks.
This is it
re EU TPD

I am writing to you regarding the new revised European Tobacco Directive, specifically those parts relating to Electronic Cigarettes.
I have been a smoker for some 40 years and have tried to quit several times either with or without NRT, all unsuccessful. However about 18 months ago I came across these ecigs and decided to try again using them. However although initialy pleased with them found myself reaching for the old baccy tin. I saw something in them though and did some reserch into them and found better products that so much so that I have drasticaly cut the amount I smoke , from 25 to 30 rollups a day to 4 or 5, most weekends none. I do intend to stop using burning tobacco eventualy but in my own time, although many others have stopped using tobacco and completely switched to vaping almost straight away there are a number of others that are dual users such as myself.(Please note switching and not quitting)

However the amount of nicotine proposed as the maximum permitted in this directive would be useless for the majority of electronic cigarette users. Few can use less than 12 mg/ml concentration without smoking, the majority use 18mg/ml, and a few need as much as 36mg/ml in order not to return to smoking. This was the main problem when I first started using ecigs, needed a higher level of nicotine with a better delivery system

My main concern is that the proposed changes to the EU Tobacco Regulations (http://ec.europa.eu/health/tobacco/docs/...88_en.pdf) amount to nothing less than an effective ban on ecigs at worst and, by reducing the nicotine content to 4mg/ml,therefore making ecigs as useless as NRT.

Unfortunately, ecigs are seen as a threat by some in the tobacco control lobby rather than as an effective anti-smoking tool because we continue to use nicotine rather than abstain completely.I think everyone now agrees that it is the tar and CO,etc which are harmful, not the nicotine
However there is a growing support for ecigs in the role of harm reduction and is even recognised as such by ASH and if you look up Clive Bates blog ( former head of ASH ) you will find a great deal of information..

A number of people that have stopped smoking and vape instead are classed as non-smokers by their doctors because they inhale flavoured vapour with a reletivly low quantity of nicotine. The majority of us either cannot or have no desire to give up nicotine and have failed in all efforts using nicotine replacement therapy and/or other 'stop smoking' drugs.

Electronic cigarettes do not contain the 4000+ toxins in tobacco smoke, very little nicotine is released into the atmosphere, so we no longer smell of smoke or endanger children and non-smokers with second-hand smoke.
In the UK this industry is already tightly regulated under Health and Safety and Trading Standards laws. The liquid for these electronic cigarettes not sold in pre-filled cartridges must be CHIP compliant, and is batch-tested for purity by independent laboratories.

The evidence, if you ignore research sponsored by the pharmaceutical industry, specifically the manufacturers of 'quit smoking' NRT and pills, research made by an industry concerned that it will lose the profits it makes from repeated unsuccessful attempts to stop smoking (I believe that the failure rate is 95%), shows that electronic cigarettes are far less harmful than smoking, possibly having only 1% of the danger, as much as drinking coffee.

I do know that if this directive is passed and implemented as it stands now, millions of people throughout Europe and hundreds of thousands of people in the UK, will return to smoking and probably cost the NHS a considerable amount of money treating smoking-related diseases, as well as causing many more smoking-related deaths.

There is also a growing European and UK industry in the manufacture and sale of the liquid for electronic cigarettes and the sale of the devices used. This is a young and growing industry, employing more people every year as more smokers learn of electronic cigarettes and switch from tobacco smoking successfully by using them instead.

I look on ecigs as a much healthier smoking alternative for recreational nicotine use, bare in mind that nicotine is not a carcinogen or harmfull at the levels that is curantly in use and not as a quit device and should NOT be medicinalized as a NRT or a smoking cessation device. For the reasons mentioned above available nic levels should stay as they are otherwise it would make ecigs useless and drive myself and others back onto tobacco cigarettes,

Or is that what they want

I ask you all, for the sake of the health of Britons if for no other reason, to oppose this ban or heavy regulation/medicinalisation on effective electronic cigarettes and most importantly the liquids


Yours Most Sincerely

Better late than never

[richardmorgan]

Rob

Very interesting, I have a business selling electronic cigarettes and as an industry we are not allowed to advertise on googles pay per click or any of the other PPC sites. This makes the big boys able to charge what they like for the items. we are probably the cheapest in the UK but because of advertising rules we find it very hard to get sales. It is the government that has dictated to the likes of google, as a way to limit the sales of electronic cigarettes.

[MarkS]

Nice one Rob.

It wasn't to late and I hope others do not think it is.

Hopefully your letter will inspire others who have been thinking about writing to their MEP's to do so.

We all have so much to lose if we don't.

Every letter/email/meeting is making a difference.

[hifistud]

Apr 14, 2013 13:32:40 GMT MarkS said:

Nice one Rob.

It wasn't to late and I hope others do not think it is.

Hopefully your letter will inspire others who have been thinking about writing to their MEP's to do so.

We all have so much to lose if we don't.

Every letter/email/meeting is making a difference.

Actually, another round of emails and letters is probably a good idea, especially since they meet again on the 25th - so the timing couldn't be better!!!

Don't let them rest!

[MarkS]

Email wise Dave I haven't stopped sending them to my MEP's and MP.

Every new bit of information that comes to light is sent to all of my MEP's, but yes maybe sending them all another round of letters would help.

Not one has agreed to meet me yet though and my MP has not replied to any correspondence at all.

Time to raise that with her Party HQ I think.