Brussels, 25/04/2013 (Agence Europe) - At a time when the European Commission plans to regulate the amount of nicotine in electronic cigarettes in its proposal for a revised directive on tobacco products, several MEPs protested during a hearing held at the European Parliament on 24 April against what they call “a ban by the back door” on those products. Chris Davies (ALDE, UK), Martin Callanan (ECR, UK) and Christopher Fjellner (EPP, Sweden) said the electronic cigarettes save lives and that the Commission's provisions would push former smokers to return to using tobacco products.
In its revision, the Commission extends the scope of the directive to cover products that contain nicotine, such as electronic cigarettes. Authorisation would only be granted to electronic cigarettes with a nicotine content not exceeding 4 mg. Beyond that threshold, the products would be subject to the same system of authorisation as for medicines, and it would therefore be very difficult for consumers to obtain them. Electronic cigarettes allow smokers to take a step towards abstinence, by consuming a product which, although it does, indeed, contain nicotine, is “without the 4,000 harmful chemicals that tobacco smoke contains”, MEPs say. Electronic cigarettes currently contain, on average, between 10 and 11 mg of nicotine. Lowering that to 4 mg would make the products ineffective for smokers seeking to quit the habit, and would push them towards tobacco products, they said. The Electronic Cigarette Industry Trade Association (ECITA) is of the same opinion and welcomes the fact that some MEPs are opposed to the Commission's proposals. “We would encourage MEPs to look objectively at the quality of the various pieces of evidence available to them and listen to the numerous public health experts who see the potential public health benefits electronic cigarettes can bring”, said Katherine Devlin, ECITA President.
There are two opposite camps with regard to electronic cigarettes. Some believe that e-cigarettes really do allow people to wean themselves off tobacco, while others believes it is a dangerous product that, on the contrary, is a way towards consuming tobacco by initiating non-smokers to acting as if smoking and leading to dependency. During the first hearings of the subject at the EP, rapporteur Linda McAvan (S&D, UK) had said that she would pay the greatest attention to the provisions on electronic cigarettes. The date limit for submitting amendments was set at 6 May at the ENVI committee (environment, public health and food safety), responsible for working on the text. (IL/transl.jl)