NEWS
VV
VAPOUROUND MAGAZINE’S
STEVE TARPEY FAILS TO SEE
THE LOGIC OF THE TPD
It is difficult to imagine just how more badly wrong our
politicians could have got the TPD.
This piece of legislation throws logic out
of the window and seems to have the
opposite effect of what it should be doing.
Throughout the UK and Europe you will
hear politicians say that smoking kills
and that everything should be done to
encourage people to stop smoking so
that lives are saved.
This is why there are so many places
where once you could smoke and now it
is illegal to do so.
All very well and good you may say and
it is but to draft a piece of legislation
which makes no distinction between a
traditional cigarette and an e-cigarette is
beyond crazy.
Perhaps it is because they both have
‘cigarette’ their names that it was thought
they are also both tobacco products
and because tobacco products are evil
therefore e-cigarettes must also be evil.
On a kinder view towards our politicians
we might say that perhaps less was
known about e-cigarettes and vaping
when the Tobacco Products Directive
was first drafted than is known now.
Maybe that is true but that is no excuse
for failing to amend a piece of legislation
which is so blatantly wrong in many
respects…not least of all in the potential
to save lives.
There is so much evidence now that
e-cigarettes have a huge potential to
stop smokers smoking that one might
argue it would be far better to make
their use compulsory for smokers rather
than enacting legislation which makes
their manufacture and sale overly
burdensome, expensive and incredibly
complex.
Last year Public Health England
produced a report which concluded that
vaping was at least 95 per cent safer
than smoking.
Here is what it actually said: “Best
estimates show e-cigarettes are 95%
less harmful to your health than normal
cigarettes, and when supported by a
smoking cessation service, help most
smokers to
quit tobacco altogether.”
So would you not think that when
smoking accounts for 100,000 deaths in
the UK alone each year and e-cigarettes
are so much less harmful than cigarettes
that politicians would want to do all in
their power to encourage the switch to
vaping?
Maybe they thought Public Health
England was wrong and they were
waiting for some more research to back
up its report.
Well there is always the Royal College
of Physicians who have also looked in
depth at vaping and its potential to save
lives.
Here are some of the things the Royal
College of Physicians had to say:
"Promoting e-cigarettes... as widely as
possible, as a substitute for smoking, is
likely to generate significant health gains
in the UK” and
“Forcing e-cigarette packaging to carry
big health warnings is ‘illogical’,” and
even “The emergence of e-cigarettes has
generated a massive opportunity for a
revolution in the way that nicotine is used
in society. As the technology of these
and other non-tobacco nicotine products
improves, so the vision of a society that
is free from tobacco smoking, and the
harm that smoking causes, becomes
more realistic.”
Add to that all the stories from around the
world from people saying that it was only
vaping that actually led to them giving
up smoking and that is surely a powerful
message that vaping should encouraged.
So what does the TPD do? Well it bans
virtually all advertising of e-cigarettes
and e-liquids so that those people who
might very well quit smoking if they knew
about vaping don’t get to hear about it in
the first place.
It is a piece of legislation which says:
“There is a great way to save lives and get
the world’s population off cigarettes so let’s
do all in our power to keep it a secret.”
I’ve got a better idea. Let’s not keep it
a secret. Let’s be vocal about it. Let’s
ensure that our politicians know how we
feel and let’s encourage them to be vocal
about it on our behalf.
As this magazine goes to press there is
a move by the House of Lords to throw
out the TPD in the UK. Let’s hope this
actually happens so that we can have
some proper debate in this country about
how vaping should be regulated in this
country.
Why spend so much time and effort
implementing a TPD which is flawed and
nonsensical when we could be actually
doing our bit to save lives instead?
We need responsible regulation for the
e-cigarette industry and the sooner our
politician recognise that fact the better.
P O U R O U
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12 ISSUE 05 VAPOUROUND MAGAZINE
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