April 20th, 2014
European Union states and lawmakers agreed on Wednesday to regulate the booming e cigarette market and discourage smoking by increasing the size of health warnings on packets.
The sale of increasingly popular e cigarettes will continue to be authorised although countries that classify them as medicinal products will be able to restrict their sale to pharmacies only.
After intensive lobbying from the relatively new electronic cigarette industry, the European Parliament had refused to restricted their sale to pharmacies across the 28 nation bloc.
However nicotine content in both the devices and refills will be regulated and the European Commission will have to provide a report on potential health risks two years after the EU’s anti smoking measures come into effect.
About seven million Europeans have turned to e cigarettes in the last four years.
The law, which must still be formally approved by the parliament and member states, will force tobacco firms to cover 65 percent of the packaging with health warnings.
With 70 percent of smokers beginning before the age of 18, and 94 percent before the age of 25, the new legislation aims especially to make cigarettes less attractive to youngsters.
Almost 700,000 Europeans die from tobacco related illnesses each year equal to the population of Frankfurt or Palermo with associated health costs running at more than 25 billion euros ($34 billion euros).
Eu regulations on e-cigarettes may be “counter productive” – paddy puff electronic cigarettes
Check out this latest article in the Economist on how the new regulations on e cigarettes, due to be voted on October 8th in the European Parliment.
The Economist states
On October 8th it is due to vote on a new tobacco control directive. Its intent is to cut smoking and keep children from taking it up (see article). But one of its main provisions would have the opposite effect. It would treat e cigarettes like medicines, which includes requiring their makers to seek approval from the agencies that regulate pharmaceuticals when they bring a new product to market. This would greatly reduce the range of products available and increase their price. Even the European Commission, which first proposed the approach, admits that this is likely to slow the uptake of e cigarettes. A vote for more curbs in Europe will also surely send a signal to America s Food and Drug Administration, which is contemplating its own regulations.
