Yes a good letter, a couple of typo's and grammer changes I'd suggest:
Dear 38 Degrees Campaign Team,
There is a massive public heath issue that is largely being ignored in the main stream media at the moment but is making it's way through the European Parliament and potentially being made far worse by MRHA attempting policy making by press release. This being the section of the Tobacco Products Directive
(TPD) that deals with the personal vaporiser (PV)
devices that are commonly know as e-cigarettes (eCigs).
I am a Vaper (someone who uses a nicotine vaporiser) and five days after receiving my first starter kit in October 2011 I have not smoked a tobacco product. Previous to this I had been smoking around 12.5 grams of rolling tobacco per day for about 20 years. My health has improved considerably as a result and it only took a few weeks for people who have known me for decades to notice such. I know one anecdote does not constitute evidence but many hundreds if not thousands more can be found be visiting sites such as:
allaboute-cigarettes.proboards.com/
ukvapers.org/index.php
www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/etc.
PVs mimic most of the actions and sensations of smoking. The hand to mouth action is there. The feeling of inhaling something more than air is there. Plus they also satisfy the nicotine craving. This combination means they are vastly more effective for many people than any form of nicotine replacement therapy currently on the market. There are no chemicals in the vapour produced that have ever been shown to be harmful to human health, indeed, every chemical used has been approved as a general sales product by the EU in the past. Nicotine, when separated from tobacco is widely understood by the medical community to be no more harmful than caffeine and propylene glycol has many medicinal uses including asthma inhalers.
The main stream media currently estimates there to be approximately 1.3 Million PV/eCig users in the UK with the number doubling approximately every 12 months. No one is saying there are no heath risks to using PVs/eCigs but the heath risks are certainly many orders of magnitude lower than smoking. This is a technology that potentially has massive public health benefits.
However, the European Commission and the MRHA want the
Nicotine in these products regulated as medicines, but interestingly not the nicotine contained in tobacco If this happens it will severely limit choice in what is currently a very innovative and competitive market. The prohibitive expense of requiring products that are currently effectively regulated by Trading Standards under
Consumer Sale Products regulation
to acquire medicinal licenses, realistically estimated by ECITA (Electronic Cigarette Industry Trade Association) as running into hundreds if not millions of pounds, would effectively put the majority of UK Vendors out of business, will remove all but the cheapest, least effective products
from the market and create a cartel controlled by the major pharmaceutical suppliers of NRT products (patches, gum, etc.) and making them heavily over-priced.
All this while traditional tobacco products (cigarettes and rolling tobacco) which are known to kill at least 50% of their users are being left virtually unregulated, and as freely available as ever.
A 2008 Cochrane Review showed that NRT is less than 10% effective in causing smoking cessation in those who want to quit at the two year point. However available data, sketchy as is it
shows than PVs/eCigs are likely around 50% effective. Recent research published in PLOS
insert link to PLOS article shows that PVs/eCigs maybe up to 13% effective even in those with no intention of quitting
cigarettes.
There is a standard "follow the money" scenario here. Pharmaceutical companies make millions from selling largely ineffective NRT products, Tobacco companies are starting to muscle into the PV/eCig market and the UK Treasury currently spend about
£2.4 Billion in treating smoking related diseases
while receiving approximately £9 Billion in tobacco related taxes. Public Health: E-cigarettes; MHRA, European Parliament.
Currently the E-cig market is based entirely on free enterprise and does not receive any type of Government subsidy or funding, therefore costing the UK and EU taxpayers zero, but likewise the same Governments do not receive any additional tax from these products other than standard VAT through sales, therefore causing a potential loss of revenue. The potential health savings are immense, however this does not seem to be having any impact on the decision making process of MHRA, or those debating the TPD in the European Parliament.There is to be a large protest against the medicalisation of PVs/eCigs at the European Parliament on July 10th. It would be great if 38 Degrees could promote the heath interests of approximately 1.3 Million UK citizens (and many time that across the EU) .
I commend this public heath campaign as to one that would be worthy of 38 Degrees to take up.
Kind regards,
<name>
References and sources:
Anti-tobacco campaigner and former director of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH):
www.clivebates.com/
