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I registered to get something on that article and it seems to have worked. This is what I said:


The MHRA is proposing to remove the protection of current laws for unlicensed nicotine products (such as the Chemicals (Hazard Information and Packaging for Supply) Regulations 2009, the Poisons Act 1972, CE mark standards and the General Product Safety Regulations 2005) and to bring all nicotine products under the provisions of the Medicines Act 1968, with the exception of all tobacco products (for some reason they choose to exempt tobacco products from safety, efficacy and quality tests).

That will mean that non-tobacco nicotine products can only be traded by pharmaceutical companies.

The General Product Safety Regulations 2005 state that only 'safe' products are legal to sell and defines 'safe' as: "A “safe product” is any product which under normal or reasonably foreseeable conditions of use presents no risk or only the minimum risk compatible with the product’s use and which is consistent with a high level of protection for consumers."

Trading Standards officers are currently enforcing this regulation.

The MHRA cannot tell me why that level of safety is inadequate and why they will remove this protection from goods that people choose to buy and use as recreational products.

I'm not sure they can say how nicotine can even be a medicine at all considering it has no proven benefit other than sustaining addiction. If ecigs ever do get licensed it won't be because NRT works, it will be to boost pharm company profits (they fund the MHRA and lots of other decision makers and researchers involved in the NRT scam).
vapersnetwork.org/forum/showthread.php?tid=194&page=1

The FDA report has been widely discredited as exaggerated scaremongering, Judge Leon said this about the FDAs attempt to control electronic cigarettes as medical devices: "I am not convinced that the threat to the public interest in general or to third parties in particular is as great as FDA suggests. Together, both Smoking Everywhere and NJOY have already sold hundreds of thousands of electronic cigarettes, yet FDA cites no evidence that those electronic cigarettes have endangered anyone. Nor has FDA cited any evidence that electronic cigarettes are any more an immediate threat to public health and safety than traditional cigarettes, which are readily available to the public."
ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2009cv0771-54

If anyone is interested in trying ecigs please do your research, ask enthusiasts on independent forums for recommendations and beware of marketing scams - there are quite a few dodgy traders around.

These are great UK forums to find help:
ukvapers.com/
allaboute-cigarettes.proboards.com/index.cgi

Finally, a lot of people were interested in commenting on this article but comments don't seem to be appearing. I've registered as a member in order to try to respond.

Well I left a comment on that article last night and there's still nothing there so I'm not sure if they're just slow at moderating or if they don't want responses.

You're all so wonderful I thought you'd like another challenge

You don't have to register for this one and there's a bit more to get your teeth into: digg.com/d31KtxN

Jackie from UKVapers gets a mention too.

x

Why don't we organise a day ourselves? A tobacco harm reduction day or a vapers day or something?

You folks are great, thanks for making a fuss on that letter.

I know it's not a great article to respond to but it's about harm reduction and the irrational support for NRT. This is the best chance we've had so far to get the British press to see that we're here.

A bit of controversy isn't a bad thing in media terms, completely sympathetic responses don't generate strength of emotion and opinion so it's more interesting to the media if there are detractors too.

I can't log in again to respond myself or I would have done by now. I've written to the tech support at the Times to see if I can be allowed back into my account. Sorry if it looks like I've deserted the discussion but if I can get a chance I'll be back in there.

Here are some doctors and harm reduction experts who have supported us:

Dr Rodu: www.tobaccoharmreduction.org/roducv.pdf and rodutobaccotruth.blogspot.com/

Dr Baron: www.primarycaring.com/#meet

Dr Laugesen: www.healthnz.co.nz/coynews.htm

Dr Siegel: tobaccoanalysis.blogspot.com/

Paul Bergen: smokles.wordpress.com/

Dr Phillips: www.tobaccoharmreduction.org/faq/ecigs.htm

Dr Hajek (UK) said something supportive somewhere but I haven't been able to properly check him out: www.wolfson.qmul.ac.uk/psychology/staff/team/peter_hajek.html

Dr Paine (UK): www.tobaccohorizons.com/

Dr Nitzkin:

David Sweanor

Chris Snowdon (UK) not a health professional but very aware of political undercurrents and good at analysis: velvetgloveironfist.blogspot.com/



www.tobaccoharmreduction.org/interviews.htm

Those are the only ones I can think of at the moment, I hope that helps.

Thanks Keef. No worries, there's no rush.

I wanted to spread word about this because it's the first chance I've noticed with a high profile UK publisher to have our say, put the case and let them know that we're out here.