Dear Mr. Schulz,
I have been closely following the TPD going through and must say that on the whole I am for the changes proposed by the TPD regarding tobacco control. As a former smoker of over 14 months now I struggled for many years with smoking and the cycle of quitting using NRT or cold turkey when I realised that it did not make me feel well at all.
I took up smoking aged 14 as a lot of my peers did and coming from a smoking household it was almost inevitable I suppose. In total I smoked for 23 years and for most of them I really enjoyed it, this was my vice and pleasure as I was really on a very occasional drinker but found smoking to be sociable. However I do believe that if tobacco was properly controlled when I first took up the habit I would not have been as interested or able to even buy them as readily.
The tobacco companies have had their extended payday for far too long, with millions of deaths a consquence of their healthy profit margins and cash reserves I feel that their time needs to be over, they should not get the total control they enjoy in realistically what is just another vice like caffeine or an occasional alcoholic beverage.
As a whole the TPD is trying to do good things and I have no doubt that such restrictions are likely to curb the power tobacco companies have.
Which leads me to my main query and concern, e-cigarettes.
The current proposals regarding e-cigarettes take all the power from what is a perfect way in which to control tobacco and hands it back to the tobacco companies once again, if the proposals are allowed to go through in the TPD - rather than split the vote as it should be - you will effectively give users of ecigs a one way street back to smoking.
Article 18 has no place in the TPD as it is not a tobacco product, it should be dealt with entirely scientifically and under it's own proposal but critically, separate from the tobacco legislation. It feels rushed and underplanned, it seems like no-one has done their research or consulted any of the eminent scientists who have so far willingly provided data to show how ecigs as a whole will help cut down the number of people smoking lit tobacco for an alternative proven many times less harmful already.
Surely the E.U. owes it to it's citizens to make sure these devices are fairly represented and regulated and not just bundled in to tobacco products on a whim?
On the surface it just appears that the tobacco industry still has control of politicians, they know that the TPD will reduce profitability and if ecigs are left out of the equation their sales will continue to plummet. To a layman such as myself it looks like the E.U. are trying to take lit tobacco away from them but hand them ecigs back on a plate in a much less palatable format than most users will find useful - but ultimately more profitable to the large companies who will develop the limited devices likely allowed.
I would urge you to take a look again at the proposals, not just because you are being requested to by many people but because it is the RIGHT thing to do in this instance, take ecigs out of the TPD and pass all the tobacco legislation proposed in order to help people like myself avoid lit tobacco entirely - but then regulate ecigs as the product they are, not tobacco and much less harmful.
I am certain that most politicians enjoy a nice glass of wine on an evening and a nice cup of coffee during the day. Some of us enjoy nicotine and do not want to have to smoke to get it, if ecigs are restricted as proposed it will mean that most devices will be near to useless and will inevitably force people back to smoke.
None of us want that.
