European vaping regulations – how come theirs is so different?
This entry was posted on 28th July 2016 by twus.
Some of you may have been keeping an eye on the Europeans and their vaping regulations. Those that have will know that the Tobacco Products Directive (TPD), the regulations that control tobacco products in Europe has now been made law, and the Europeans have new regulations for e-cigarettes. Companies in Europe have roughly a year’s period of grace to get their ducks in a row regarding compliance, and then by May 2017 all e-cigarette products must comply with the TPD.
This will mean that within all member states of the European Union, (for that read countries and there are 28,) e-cigarettes now have to adhere to certain standards, i.e. nicotine levels have an upper limit of 20mg/ml, tanks are to be no larger than 2ml, advertising has been drastically reduced and there is a 6 month wait to market for new products. Yes, compliance will be costly, but it will not be prohibitive. Some member states such as Finland have decided they want to make their regulations far worse than the TPD and have banned online sales, but generally the European Union (EU) member states that have started implementing the TPD, seem to be standing by the letter of the law.
So how come they got that and we get the FDA killing off the market in two years time?
We are going to say because of people power and people action, and without blowing our own trumpet – TW’s court case. The Court case against the European Union’s TPD helped to publicize the plight of vaping to places it might not have otherwise been noticed.
Plus, the EU works differently to the US, though on the face of it there are some similarities if you imagine the EU acting at the Federal level, and member states acting at State level.
EU vapers managed to turn around legislation that began in 2013 as severe medical regulations and ended up with something that will, be survivable.
This was achieved because Vapers from Europe united, they organized, they wrote, they visited, they made noise – but the most important thing they did - they educated.
We can’t stress that enough – they educated.
THE most effective tool was individual letters to Members of Parliaments stating how vaping has changed lives. With a simple letter they educated the regulators on a personal, emotional and factual level. And then these letters were followed up by visits, so that the ‘letter’ became a real person. MP’s in the UK were surprised to receive hundreds, and sometimes thousands of letters from their constituents explaining how important vaping was in the move away from tobacco.
Visits to Members of the European Parliament (MEP) were organized to show that vaping is not some arbitrary ‘thing’ that smokers do, and the visits showed that vaping helps people move away from a deadly habit.
This action by vapers from all across the EU made MEP’s realize that the proposed medical regulations were wrong, resulting in quite a few MEPs then standing up and taking up the cause of vaping.
There were sadly some shady shenanigans at the end, behind closed doors, as even the EU isn’t immune from Tobacco and Pharmaceutical lobbying - but essentially vapers uniting and taking action is what made the difference.
Summits were organized; the E-cig summit in London, the Global Forum on Nicotine in Warsaw to name two of the best. These summits brought together scientists and tobacco control people and e-cigarettes were discussed – again – the education comes back into play, Scientists talked about what they found, tobacco control voiced their fears, vapers were there too and the three different groups communicated and debated.
Important to note as well, tobacco control did their own research and were not afraid to publish findings that went against their fears – i.e. teens and vaping, and finding that no, vaping does NOT lead to smoking,
Crucially, vaping companies and manufacturers were very much left OUT of this. And at the start this was vital – no vested interests or corporate lobbying could be called out, though some against e-cigarettes did try.
Then, there was Public Health England (PHE).
UK vapers connected with people in tobacco control and Public health, and they began to forge relationships. They began to educate, to explain, to answer questions, go to select committees – sit and be grilled – provide briefings, show hardware etc, and take the time to explain.
And this went on relentlessly for several years. It meant sending many letters, many briefings, and it also meant countering the junk science, of which sadly there is a lot, and always despairingly ramped up by the media.
The UK has been very fortunate in that PHE and the Royal College of Physicians both sat up and listened, they did their own investigations and came out with the conclusion they have;
E-cigs are essentially 95% less harmful than tobacco. The result? The UK is now leading the way in encouraging smokers to switch to vaping and regard e-cigarettes as a harm reduction tool. It looks like France might follow this lead too.
However, here in the USA we have a completely different mountain to climb than the TPD. Vapers in Europe crucially had time to change the legislation as it went through the parliamentary process. They had time to write and organize, and they knew what they were up against from the start, as the draft TPD was public for all to see.
That has not been the case in the USA. The FDA has behaved as an autocratic institution, ignoring advice and information and has ruled for the FDA’s benefit, not for the smoker/vaper. Here we are presented with rules, as fait accompli, that we now have the arduous task of changing, and we have to face massive corporate lobbying and some very closed minds along the way.
Due to this the courts may be the only way that we can get FDA’s e cigarette regulations changed, as the law deals only with what is legal or illegal, not what is right or wrong.
There is still a legislative hope of change, and we wrote about that in a previous post, which you can read here, and despite the apparent difficulty of this situation, we can take a leaf out of the European’s book and we can write.
We, Totally Wicked want to go direct to the legislators in this country with similar pleas from vapers whose lives have been positively impacted.
We have heard from our customers in person and on social media, and now we want to include those stories and many more in order to show the real face and significant benefits of vaping. We need your help to do this, so please send us your stories, share with all of us how vaping has changed your life, and then we will take those stories and send them to every single member of both Houses, and we might even send them to the President as well.
Legislators need to hear from us, vapers, not from corporate lobbyist, not from Tobacco Control that are doing their best to impersonate the tobacco industry of old. We are the ones who’s lives are at stake, not theirs.
So please, take some action, because it does make an impact, it will cause a ripple, and if we all do it – we can move legislative mountains.
Please send your stories to: [email protected]
This entry was posted on 28th July 2016 by twus.
Some of you may have been keeping an eye on the Europeans and their vaping regulations. Those that have will know that the Tobacco Products Directive (TPD), the regulations that control tobacco products in Europe has now been made law, and the Europeans have new regulations for e-cigarettes. Companies in Europe have roughly a year’s period of grace to get their ducks in a row regarding compliance, and then by May 2017 all e-cigarette products must comply with the TPD.
This will mean that within all member states of the European Union, (for that read countries and there are 28,) e-cigarettes now have to adhere to certain standards, i.e. nicotine levels have an upper limit of 20mg/ml, tanks are to be no larger than 2ml, advertising has been drastically reduced and there is a 6 month wait to market for new products. Yes, compliance will be costly, but it will not be prohibitive. Some member states such as Finland have decided they want to make their regulations far worse than the TPD and have banned online sales, but generally the European Union (EU) member states that have started implementing the TPD, seem to be standing by the letter of the law.
So how come they got that and we get the FDA killing off the market in two years time?
We are going to say because of people power and people action, and without blowing our own trumpet – TW’s court case. The Court case against the European Union’s TPD helped to publicize the plight of vaping to places it might not have otherwise been noticed.
Plus, the EU works differently to the US, though on the face of it there are some similarities if you imagine the EU acting at the Federal level, and member states acting at State level.
EU vapers managed to turn around legislation that began in 2013 as severe medical regulations and ended up with something that will, be survivable.
This was achieved because Vapers from Europe united, they organized, they wrote, they visited, they made noise – but the most important thing they did - they educated.
We can’t stress that enough – they educated.
THE most effective tool was individual letters to Members of Parliaments stating how vaping has changed lives. With a simple letter they educated the regulators on a personal, emotional and factual level. And then these letters were followed up by visits, so that the ‘letter’ became a real person. MP’s in the UK were surprised to receive hundreds, and sometimes thousands of letters from their constituents explaining how important vaping was in the move away from tobacco.
Visits to Members of the European Parliament (MEP) were organized to show that vaping is not some arbitrary ‘thing’ that smokers do, and the visits showed that vaping helps people move away from a deadly habit.
This action by vapers from all across the EU made MEP’s realize that the proposed medical regulations were wrong, resulting in quite a few MEPs then standing up and taking up the cause of vaping.
There were sadly some shady shenanigans at the end, behind closed doors, as even the EU isn’t immune from Tobacco and Pharmaceutical lobbying - but essentially vapers uniting and taking action is what made the difference.
Summits were organized; the E-cig summit in London, the Global Forum on Nicotine in Warsaw to name two of the best. These summits brought together scientists and tobacco control people and e-cigarettes were discussed – again – the education comes back into play, Scientists talked about what they found, tobacco control voiced their fears, vapers were there too and the three different groups communicated and debated.
Important to note as well, tobacco control did their own research and were not afraid to publish findings that went against their fears – i.e. teens and vaping, and finding that no, vaping does NOT lead to smoking,
Crucially, vaping companies and manufacturers were very much left OUT of this. And at the start this was vital – no vested interests or corporate lobbying could be called out, though some against e-cigarettes did try.
Then, there was Public Health England (PHE).
UK vapers connected with people in tobacco control and Public health, and they began to forge relationships. They began to educate, to explain, to answer questions, go to select committees – sit and be grilled – provide briefings, show hardware etc, and take the time to explain.
And this went on relentlessly for several years. It meant sending many letters, many briefings, and it also meant countering the junk science, of which sadly there is a lot, and always despairingly ramped up by the media.
The UK has been very fortunate in that PHE and the Royal College of Physicians both sat up and listened, they did their own investigations and came out with the conclusion they have;
E-cigs are essentially 95% less harmful than tobacco. The result? The UK is now leading the way in encouraging smokers to switch to vaping and regard e-cigarettes as a harm reduction tool. It looks like France might follow this lead too.
However, here in the USA we have a completely different mountain to climb than the TPD. Vapers in Europe crucially had time to change the legislation as it went through the parliamentary process. They had time to write and organize, and they knew what they were up against from the start, as the draft TPD was public for all to see.
That has not been the case in the USA. The FDA has behaved as an autocratic institution, ignoring advice and information and has ruled for the FDA’s benefit, not for the smoker/vaper. Here we are presented with rules, as fait accompli, that we now have the arduous task of changing, and we have to face massive corporate lobbying and some very closed minds along the way.
Due to this the courts may be the only way that we can get FDA’s e cigarette regulations changed, as the law deals only with what is legal or illegal, not what is right or wrong.
There is still a legislative hope of change, and we wrote about that in a previous post, which you can read here, and despite the apparent difficulty of this situation, we can take a leaf out of the European’s book and we can write.
We, Totally Wicked want to go direct to the legislators in this country with similar pleas from vapers whose lives have been positively impacted.
We have heard from our customers in person and on social media, and now we want to include those stories and many more in order to show the real face and significant benefits of vaping. We need your help to do this, so please send us your stories, share with all of us how vaping has changed your life, and then we will take those stories and send them to every single member of both Houses, and we might even send them to the President as well.
Legislators need to hear from us, vapers, not from corporate lobbyist, not from Tobacco Control that are doing their best to impersonate the tobacco industry of old. We are the ones who’s lives are at stake, not theirs.
So please, take some action, because it does make an impact, it will cause a ripple, and if we all do it – we can move legislative mountains.
Please send your stories to: [email protected]