E-Cigarette Summit UK Summary
Today the Royal Society became the site of the E-Cigarette Summit, a day dedicated to debating the safety, efficacy and regulation of e-cigarettes. The day was split into three sessions, firstly looking at the safety and efficacy, then moving on to regulation, and finally looking at the controversies surrounding the technology.
European Parliament Ban on E-Cigs
Here in the states, we awoke to big news this morning from our neighbors across the pond. Today, Members of European Parliament voted on several revisions to the Tobacco Products Directive. Among them was a vote on whether or not to classify e-cigarettes as medicinal products, restricting sales to pharmacies for products with a nicotine concentration over 4%, or 4 mg/ml.
Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Authority
The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Authority (MHRA) in the UK has recently announced that it will regulate e-cigarettes (as well as other nicotine-containing products) as medicines from 2016 onwards. This move is a huge step forwards for the e-cig industry – despite some concerns – but what will the legislation mean for UK vapers? And is the FDA likely to pursue their regulation in the same vein?
Oklahoma Bill SB 802-ecigs
Oklahoma Senator Rob Johnson’s proposed bill to impose a small tax on e-cigs, formally ban their sale to minors and require any vendors to be licensed seems like a harmless and sensible piece of legislation on first reading about it. However, there is a darker vein lurking in the densely layered legalese and clunky phrases like “vapor products,” since the bill would also make it illegal to buy e-cigs online and for sellers in the state to buy their products from anybody other than Oklahoma-based distributor or wholesaler.
Njoy, more famous recently for the controversial TV ad, has made a landmark addition to their board of directors, appointing former Surgeon General Dr. Richard Carmona. The calls for increased regulation of the e-cigarette industry come notably from groups generally critical of e-cigs, but Njoy’s decision reflects the fact that e-cigarette manufacturers themselves also rank their customer’s health as their primary concern. This is obvious to anybody in the vaping community, but it will hopefully serve as a wake-up call for wider society.