I've just sent this to my local councillors. Their labour though so I wont hold my breath
Dear Christopher Ready, John Hilton and Ronald Conway,
Hello, my name is Graham Entwistle. I have followed with, I have to be honest, disgust, the tpd process in the European parliament. Whilst I whole heartedly welcome anything that helps people to quit smoking, my problem is the way they have tacked on badly thought out regulations on personal vaporising devices, flying in the face of the scientific and anecdotal evidence provided, misrepresnting much of it, blatantly ignoring various corrections offered by the scientists and doctors who conducted the research.
To cap it off, the results of todays vote were announced LAST NIGHT by one interested party, the European Respitory Society, bringing to question whether it was in fact a democratic vote in the first place?
To put it bluntly, at the moment it seems the EU is a shambles and peoples very health has been bought and sold by the highest bidder. I used a personal vaporiser to shake the smoking habit, my health has been verified within the last three months by my new doctor.
As a cessation aid, in their current form as generation two or three devices, e cigarettes work, they work because, within reason, users have options available to tailor their "vaping experience" to suit their needs and requirements as a recreational nicotine user. Be it flavour, nicotine strength or device efficiency, many find that as they move onto more efficient devices, they drop and even totally cut out the nicotine content of their liquid.
Article 18 removes many of those options, and condems the 25% of vapers who were the heaviest smokers and in this situation, the most vulnerable, to likely returning to smoking, and more than likely a premature death as a result. In the UK alone, and only counting people who have currently switched to e-cigarettes, that equates to over 250 000 people, never mind the heavy smokers who have not yet tried switching to see how it works for them.
The situation is grave, the circumstances, disgusting. I hope you can help.
I can be contacted by email at