Vapers: Your stories can save millions of lives!

Vapers fighting for their rights
photo credit: #VAP_IN_LIBERTY via photopin cc

After the TPD was approved on the 26th of February, a lot of vapers probably ask themselves: What now? Is the war over, or is there still something we can do? Do we have to live with and adapt to article 20 and accept the fact that we had a chance to save millions of lives, but the greed and ignorance of the EU Parliament effectively smashed the snowball we had rolling?

The short answer is: Yes, there is still something we can do. The battle was lost but the war is not over. The e-cigarette-industry and user-organizations are still fighting and people like Clive Bates and Dr. Michael Siegel continue their hard work, ripping the anti-ecig-movements arguments and so called "science" apart. And to me it seems like a lot of their fighting is paying off, slowly. I've got a feeling they are getting to the media and we're gradually seeing more reasonable journalism now than we did some months ago. The feeling I'm left with is that the media used to swallow everything the anti-ecig-movement fed them whole, and most media coverage of e-cigarettes we saw was focused around "scientific" reports that "proved" the dangers of e-cigarettes and stories of pets dying from chewing on e-liquid bottles. But I do feel that the tireless efforts of Dr. Siegel, Clive Bates and a lot of others, criticizing these articles, writing letters to the people appearing in the media and publicly proving them wrong has forced the media to dig deeper and report if not the whole story, at least more of it. I'm not saying we're there yet, but in my eyes, there is a positive tendency. And having the media reporting the whole story and not just the propaganda from the other side, will be incredibly important to win the war in the end. As it stands now, "normal" people (people that don't spend hours on the internet searching for information like yours truly) cannot turn to the health organizations for reliable information about this matter, so what is written in the media will be one of their strongest influences when they make up their opinion.

Another, maybe just as important, source of information about vaping is YOU! Well, most of you at least, as I think the poll I had some weeks ago told me that around 99% of my readers are vapers. In the heading of this post I asked the question: Can we, as vapers, still do something? Sharing your story is one of the most important things you can still do. I don't expect all vapers to spend a lot of time searching the internet for scientific data, writing long letters to politicians to convince them to do the right thing and engage heavily in the online debate. And we don't need to do that either. But share your story to the people around you. As I've stressed several times before: You are proof that vaping works, so go show people that. Your story matters. And once you've told your story, you might get some questions from smokers who wants to try this out. Make it easy for these people to take the step. You can make sure you already have a web-page and a starter kit recommendation for them, or even better (if you can afford it) buy a small starter kit you can give away or lend to them. For you, as a vaper, this requires minimum effort, but I bet most of you used some time researching before you bought your first kit and that might be what is stopping a lot of smokers from trying. The more smokers that switch to vaping before 2016 comes and the TPD is to be implemented into the laws of the member states, the more stories will be told, and the better the data collected regarding the efficiency and security of e-cigarettes will be. Your story is important to keep the snowball rolling. Have a look at what the EU writes in their press release after the TPD was approved:

Can the rules on e-cigarettes be revisited at a later date?

Monitoring and reporting on all developments relating to e-cigarettes – including market and health related developments – has been built into the new Directive. The information collected will provide a good overview of what additional legislative action, if any, is required, and the Commission will revisit the issue if necessary.

This means that the TPD can be changed if we can make sure health developments are shown to be very positive, and the market develops in a healthy way. And to do that we, the vapers, can make sure the market grows by telling our stories which will in turn show the EU the huge impact this will have on public health. And when this data emerges, I'm pretty sure well have Dr. Siegel and Mr. Bates here to make sure it appears in the media, making it VERY hard for the EU to ignore. Vapers: Your story can save millions of lives!

Another thing we can do, is to support and sign the European Free Vaping Initiative. As a Norwegian citizen I can't do this myself, since Norway is not a member of the EU, but I can help spreading the word. And so can everyone else, which is just as important as signing it yourself. It is very important to note that his is not just another petition. The EFVI is a European citizens' initiative, which means that if 1 million people sign this EFVI will have the opportunity to meet Commission representatives in person and to present their initiative at a public hearing in the European Parliament. This means the EU is forced to listen to the vapers in this matter, something they have not been willing to do voluntarily. So if you're a EU citizen and haven't signed this, I urge you to do it now (sign here:  http://www.efvi.eu/), and then spread the word to as many people as possible... along with your vaping story.

The 2 ml cap on cartridges: Only affecting HUGE cig-a-likes?

EU regulators, stay away from my dripper! :)

There has of course been a lot of talk about the TPD the last days, naturally, and a lot of it has been about the 2 ml cap on refillable cartridges. Such a limit on the tank or cartridge size would favour the cig-a-likes that the Tobacco companies are investing heavily in, as these would almost be the only e-cigarettes allowed. Add the advertising ban, that big Tobacco is already used to dealing with, and it would be a pain for others to compete in such a market. Another concern is of course that these (1st generation) e-cigarettes are not as effective as the more advanced ones as shown in this study by Dr. Farsalinos and others: http://goo.gl/VT61k2. There is 2 problems with this alone:

1. Less effective e-cigarettes of course means lower chance of successfully managing to quit smoking. And the heavier the smoker, the more severe this effect will be, as these are also the ones that are the most addicted. So this, along with the 20ml/mg cap on nicotine in e-liquids, affects the people that could have benefited the most from switching... in all possible ways.
2. You would need to carry more e-liquid around. Less effective cigarettes would make vapers use more liquid, and refill more often. Low capacity and low efficiency means more nicotine bottles of e-liquid being carried around, which means less safety. Quite the opposite of what I think was the intention.

So will this cap mean that all the mods and atties we're used to are effectively banned and we'll all end up having to smoke cig-a-likes in 2 years from now? To be honest I don't really think so. For one thing there will be markets selling these, call them what you like... grey or black. But there is also another thing. Have a look at article 20, point 3 a.: http://goo.gl/ROfRpE. This is the only place the 2 ml limit is mentioned in the directive from what I can see. Here is what it reads:

"nicotine-containing liquid is only placed on the market in dedicated refill containers not exceeding a volume of 10 ml, in disposable electronic cigarettes or in single use cartridges and that the cartridges or tanks do not exceed a volume of 2 ml;"

Well, this only says how nicotine-containing liquid is allowed to be sold, doesn't it? So cartridges, tanks and re-buildables with larger capacities can be sold freely as long as they are empty? To me it sure looks like it, but I got to admit I am afraid that there is something in there that I've missed. But then again, have a look at the European Commissions own "E-cigarettes myth buster": http://goo.gl/7fzTVs

“Why regulate a product that doesn’t even contain nicotine?”
The Directive only covers e-cigarettes which contain nicotine.

Well, most, if not all advanced e-cigarettes are sold empty, not containing a drop of nicotine e-liquid. Actually almost only cig-a-likes are sold pre-filled. So... this 2 ml cap... is it really just banning HUGE cig-a-likes? As I said ... I'm afraid I have missed something, or that the directive will be altered to take care of this, but I'm still going to make sure I get to try some of those Havanas from House of Liquid before 2016.

TPD split vote WAS allowed by the EU Parlament

MEP Nikki Sinclair

According to MEP Nikki Sinclair a split vote on the TPD was actually allowed by the EU Parliament yesterday, but it was of course then to late. Nikki posted a video on Youtube (http://goo.gl/UDDBSZ) saying that at 10.49 yesterday morning the Parliament had allowed a split vote. But this was just 41 minutes before the vote and on that short notice no lobbying could be done and no information could be given so the vote of course went against us.

This is just another example of the political skullduggery that is going on in the EU Parliament. As Nikki says, the e-cigarettes was put into the TPD "with a spoonful of sugar". The TPD has a lot of useful regulations for example to stop children smoking, which of course is something we all want. So putting the e-cigarette legislation in there is just a way of getting it approved, even though most MEPs (from what I understand) was against it, by piggybacking it to regulations that the most MEPs would vote in favour of. A split vote would have countered this effect. It has been argued for such a split vote for months now, but president Martin Schultz wouldn't listen... until 41 minutes before the vote, way to late for it to become a reality. And Schultz of course knew that, so this is, like I said before just political skullduggery and it shows how the EU Parliament is ignoring the principles of democracy. And the result this time can be that the markets of Big Tobacco and Big Pharma is protected and millions of lives that could have been saved won't be, because the technology that could have ended the Tobacco plague is slowed down substantially. Why they do this, one can only guess... corruption, loss of taxes or just lack of common sense are reasons that comes to mind. We do know that Big Tobacco and Big Pharma is benefiting from this, so it's not very hard to imagine that their shady lobbying tactics have played a great part in this. But one thing is for sure, their reasons are not what they want us all to believe; that they do this to protect public health.

But as I said yesterday: The war is not over. There is no reason for vapers to give up. Remember, most of us don't fight this fight for their own sake, we have already made the switch, and the TPD won't stop us from vaping. But we are fighting for all the smokers that haven't made the switch yet, and for reasonable regulations that will enable them to do this. I believe that if we keep the scientific evidence coming, grow in numbers and continue to work with MEPs and media we will win in the end.

TPD approved today: The battle is lost, but the war is not over yet

I'm sad to see that the EU Parliament today approved the revised Tobacco Products Directive, including the dreaded article 18 concerning e-cigarettes. You can read the press release here: http://goo.gl/5TYkGZ. This means that we from 2016 will see a lot of regulations that will make the e-cigarettes less appealing and not as effective as today: a maximum permitted nicotine concentration level of 20mg/ml, ban on advertising and labelling regulations, maximum 2ml tanks (that are required to be leak proof) and 10 ml bottles of e-liquid to name a few. All of these regulations that will work against the goal of improved public health and protect the current tobacco and NRT markets. I've written about the consequences of this over-regulating before, and now, sadly the may become a reality: Part 1, Part2, Part 3 and yesterdays post on advertising bans. Also be sure to check out Steve K's Vaping World, and his post on this today. Steve is right... it's a cold day in Europe.

We might have lost the battle, but the war is not over yet. Notice this text in the paragraph in the press release:

Can the rules on e-cigarettes be revisited at a later date?

Monitoring and reporting on all developments relating to e-cigarettes – including market and health related developments – has been built into the new Directive. The information collected will provide a good overview of what additional legislative action, if any, is required, and the Commission will revisit the issue if necessary.

So let's make sure they see that it is necessary to revisit the issue, shall we? The Ashtray Blog has a great post today on the matter as well as some suggestions on what to do to turn this around:

Illustration by the Ashtray Blog