Update on the EU laws?

[LondonVaper]

Apologies if this has been posted elsewhere, but this local paper news item seems to include developments I haven't seen elsewhere; 20mg, 3 year moratorium on liquids, etc.

http://www.wiltsglosstandard.co.uk/news/11025019.South_West_MEP_welcomes_eCig_regulations/?ref=nt

This appears to be from late night Thursday discussions at the eu.

Thoughts?

 

[KulrMeStoopid]

Apologies if this has been posted elsewhere, but this local paper news item seems to include developments I haven't seen elsewhere; 20mg, 3 year moratorium on liquids, etc.

http://www.wiltsglosstandard.co.uk/news/11025019.South_West_MEP_welcomes_eCig_regulations/?ref=nt

This appears to be from late night Thursday discussions at the eu.

Thoughts?

Yeah this has been the TPD as they passed through plenary just a couple weeks ago.... we've all been talking about it

 

[VaperCaper]

the bullet point list of Article 18 (which is the bit of the Tobacco Products Directive efecting ecigs) goes like this:

• all tanks etc must not break or leak during use/refill
• 2ml maximum tank size
• 20mg/ml maximum strength limit (which will mean the max you can actually buy will be 18mg/ml)
• max refill bottle size 10ml
• flavours at the discretion of member states
• if 3 member states ban a device then it's auto banned throughout the EU
• vendors have a LOT more paperwork to do before adding new flavours/devices to market

It DOESN'T do any of this:

• establish quality/purity standards for e-liquid
• set an age limit EU wide

Which are the two things the existing regulations need

It also sets up a review of the legislation in 2 years time

If we want to stop this from becoming law there is ONE chance right now. It's scheduled for a vote to rubber stamp it (which WILL pass) very soon. the vote can be opened up to what's called "split and separate" votes, which basically gives MEPS the chance to vote on the individual bits of the TPD to block anything in it that's bad (namely article 18)
Opening it up is on the say so of Martin Schulz, and he's asked the Political Group Leaders (basically the heads of all the various voting blocks within the EU) to indicate their preference before he makes the final decision. The vote itself is a few days away.

Please take a few minutes to email Martin Schulz ad all the political group leaders with a brief email asking to allow split and separate votes on this issue. If enough people ask for this then the Group Leaders are much more likely to ask for the split vote and we might yet get Article 18 thrown out.

I have a page on my site about this with an easy to follow email link here: http://www.vapercaper.co.uk/pages/eu-split-and-separate-votes-for-article-18-of-the-tpd

That has links in it to Clive Bates blog post (where I got the email link from) who goes into more detail about the hows and whys.

While you're at it and feeling all political, it's really worth signing the EFVI as well - details for that are here. Both combined will take less than 10 minutes and both could really make a difference in the EU and UK laws about vaping.

 

[vaporsizer]

Email composed & sent.

 

[Phantom Diablo]

couple of points on this

• all tanks etc must not break or leak during use/refill
• 2ml maximum tank size
• 20mg/ml maximum strength limit (which will mean the max you can actually buy will be 18mg/ml)
• max refill bottle size 10ml

so lets see
indetsructable unleakable tank.
doesnt exist.. anything that requires a puncture hole of some kind for filling has the potential to crack, break or leak.

2ml tank size.
what about drippers which are unrelgulated as to how often you fill them or say a kraken or kfl which hold 3ml+ will these tanks be banned and will you get arrested if your using a tank bigger than 2ml.. cant see the police doing stop and search on your ecig tank and getting a tape measure out!

max refill bottles 10ml.. that will push prices up as its cheaper to buy a 30-50ml bottle ( ignoring postal costs ) and they completely ignore the choking risk of smaller bottles yet blather on about safety caps and warnings.
cant see a kiddie managing to fit a 50ml bottle in there mouth but a 10ml . yup easy.

max 20mg strength.
pointless tbh people will just end up "home brewing"
they also want to regulate the amount of nicotine you vape. NO such device exists on the market, much like the cigs its down to how long you inhale, how many inhales you take per hour, etc.

flavours. again as concentrates can be purchased from NON ecig related websites ( cupcakes for instance ) then vendors could just sell unflavoured liquid and the concentrates seperate.

so many flaws in the whole tpd its like a sieve and any decent self repsecting legal eagle would be able to pull it apart in seconds.
the EU commmittee needs hauling before a judge and made to explain the whole damn thing and then watch them get torn to shreds over it. Actually going to court could in essence be the the best outcome IF and only IF there is an organization with the backing to be able to do that, and thats where the biggest problem lies currently.

 

[Rotax]

Yeah this has been the TPD as they passed through plenary just a couple weeks ago.... we've all been talking about it

Actually it goes to plenary on next Wednesday 26.2.2014 at 10:30 UK time.