The EU’s attack on e-cigarettes will bring a golden age of vaping to an end
From: Spectator | Health
Walking down most British high streets you could be forgiven for thinking that e-cigarettes are more common than tobacco. It’s a false impression. There are still more smokers than vapers, but more than anywhere else in the world, you see men and women clutching a variety of shiny vaping devices. I suspect only a handful of them are aware that their e-cigarettes will be snatched from them in a few months time as a result of EU regulations that are — even by the standards of Brussels — misguided, ill-considered and counter-productive.
There are too many petty regulations contained in the Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) to list here. Suffice to say it will lead to most of the e-cigarettes on the British market being withdrawn from sale. Moreover, it will be the most popular type of e-cigarettes that will be affected. Disposable ‘first generation’ products, known as cigalikes, will be largely untouched by the new laws, but their market share is in decline and they are increasingly irrelevant except as a way for smokers to experiment with vaping. Cigalikes are simply not as good as the refillable tank systems that are the first choice of two-thirds of vapers.
