Received today:
Thank you for your email. I have received many emails from others in
the North West who share your views on the proposal by the European
Commission to amend current European law affecting electronic inhalers,
commonly known as personal vaporizers or e-cigarettes.
The Commission proposes to limit the amount of nicotine in solutions
sold for use in electronic cigarettes to four milligrams of nicotine per
millilitre, unless the products have been classified as for medicinal
use.
I believe this would render the solution too weak to be a viable source
of nicotine for smokers or ex-smokers, or would require manufacturers to
apply for a costly licence to manufacture medicinal products.
E-cigarettes offer concentrated nicotine to addicts without the 4000
toxins and carcinogens found in tobacco smoke and removes the risk posed
to non-smokers, not least children of smokers, by 'second hand' smoke.
For many people, traditional nicotine replacement therapies offered by
the NHS and the pharmaceutical industry have had very limited success
in helping smokers quit permanently.
Thousands of British e-cigarette users are likely to return smoking if
the directive is amended as foreseen and nicotine concentrations are
limited to 4mg/ml.
The proposed changes to limit permitted concentrations of nicotine
solution sold in the EU are counter-productive and will do more harm
than good.
Although I am not a member of the Parliament's Committee on the
Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, I know my Conservative
colleague Martin Callanan MEP will put forward these arguments and work
to convince other MEPs of the foolishness of diluting nicotine solution
to the point of uselessness.
Jacqueline Foster MEP
Conservative MEP for the North West of England Conservative Spokesman on Transport & Tourism in the European Parliament
www.jacquelinefostermep.comwww.twitter.com/jfostermep
