The TPD could cost more than 100,000
lives a year around the EU, the House
of Lords was told during a major debate
on vaping.
Lord Callanan said it was regretful that
the Tobacco and Related Products
Regulations 2016 (the law which
implements the TPD in the UK)
was devised before evidence had
accumulated that vaping was enabling
many people to quit smoking.
He said the new law ran counter to
advice from the Royal College of
Physicians to promote vaping and was
so severe that it could force vapers back
to smoking.
The conservative peer said:
“E-cigarettes are by far the most popular
gateway out of tobacco for our nation’s 9
million smokers.
“Bi zarrely, while the department is doing
its best to restrict sales of one tobacco
substitute, which costs taxpayers
nothing, we are heavily subsidising
nicotine-containing gum and patches,
because they are given out
on prescription.
“The difference, of course, is that
these products are made by the big
pharmaceutical companies, which
appear to have the Department of Health
as a sort of wholly owned subsidiary.
“These companies stand to lose large
amounts of money as sales of their
nicotine substitutes have collapsed
with the advent of e-cigarettes. The
pharmaceutical industry uses its massive
spending power to manipulate the harm
reduction debate.”
Lord Callanan added: “We need serious
action, not just a few warm words.
We also need a clear plan to put into
production medicinal supplies of the
stronger e-liquid used by a quarter of a
million vapers.
“Now that we are going to leave the
EU, we have the opportunity to make
regulations that will be evidence-based
and to create a climate in which smokers
can quit for safer products.
“We need to remove the ridiculous
restrictions on product choice and the
advertising of e-cigarettes and other
reduced-harm products, such as heatnot-burn products.”
Lord Hunt of Kings Heath said he as
worried that far too many people were
unaware of the distinction between
vaping and smoking, particularly when it
came to health concerns.
He said: “My main concern is that
RSPH research has revealed that 90%
of the public have the impression that
e-cigarettes are at least as harmful
as tobacco.
“That is not helped by the fact that some
organisations have notices prohibiting
not just smoking, but vaping.”
Lord Campbell-Savours told how he had
to have a tumour removed from his lung
in 1996, an illness he said resulted from
his 25 year smoking habit.
He Said: “As a result of the surgery I
lost half of my lung capacity, making it
impossible for me now to walk upstairs
“E-cigarettes are
by far the most
popular gateway
out of tobacco
for our nation’s
9 million
smokers.”
F E AT U R E
or walk any great distance.
“I only wish that these new inventions
that now exist had been available to
me. I tried everything possible to stop
smoking, and it was utterly impossible.
Indeed, I had my last cigarette the night
before they took out the tumour. That is
how addicted I was to tobacco.”
Lord Forsyth of Drumlean was highly
critical of the new vaping laws saying
that the regulations were ‘without logic.’
He said: “If someone wanted to
sabotage a product, add to the costs of
producing that product, limit the scope
for competition with that product, and
drive out of business small producers,
it is hard to see how a more effective
job could be done than in respect of the
regulations that apply to
electronic cigarettes.
“There seems to be no logic in the
regulations. I find it extraordinary that
a Government should want to ban
advertising when the evidence that most
people do not realise the benefits of
vaping compared with smoking.
“These absurd regulations will
undoubtedly cost lives. They are a
classic example of how big business
is able to use Brussels, together
with lobbying organisations, to the
disadvantage—and, in this case,
life-threatening disadvantage—of the
citizens of this country.”
However, health minister Lord Prior of
Brampton defended the regulations,
saying: “It is far better to vape than it is
to smoke but it is far better to do neither.
“These regulations reduce the risk of
harm to children and protect against the
re-normalisation of tobacco use.”
“These regulations reduce the risk of
harm to children and protect against the
re-normalisation of tobacco use.”
VAPOUROUND MAGAZINE ISSUE 06 83