Eliminate Vaping Restrictions, Urges U.K. Parliament Committee

A committee of the U.K. Parliament has issued a report endorsing the promotion of e-cigarettes to smokers, and calling for review of some vaping products restrictions. The report also rejects the idea that using e-juice and vape pens acts as a gateway to smoking among British youth.

The committee concludes that U.K. lawmakers and regulators should not treat vapor products the same as combustible cigarettes. A vape tank is not the same as a pipe, nor is nicotine salt e-liquid the same as a bag of RYO Bugler.

The report, from the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee, follows months of testimony from public health and scientific experts, and representatives from tobacco control organizations, and the vaping industry and consumer community. The committee is chaired by MP Norman Lamb of North Norfolk.

The specific recommendations from the committee are:

Some of the recommendations can’t be acted upon until the U.K. leaves the European Union, since the rules are part of the EU’s Tobacco Products Directive (TPD). The nicotine strength and tank size limits, and the advertising restrictions are all mandated by the TPD. The snus ban is also part of EU tobacco regulations. (Snus is Swedish smokeless tobacco that has been shown to carry no discernible risk.)

Last year’s official English tobacco control plan also urged reconsideration of some of the TPD-mandated restrictions on vaping products. But that plan only includes England, not the rest of the U.K. (which also includes Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland).

The report urges a more efficient process for licensing medical e-cigarettes, which some in the vaping community have viewed skeptically, seeing pharmaceutical e-cigs as a threat to the consumer vaping market. Of course, they may also just be another option for smokers — and one that doctors might embrace more readily.

The committee also recognizes that mentally ill people smoke at much higher rates than the general public, and should benefit from the lower risk of vaping to themselves and bystanders. Many NHS hospitals currently ban smoking and vaping on their grounds.

“The percentage of people smoking among those with mental health conditions remains stubbornly high, while it is declining in the general population,” said committee chair Norman Lamb. “People with mental health conditions are almost 2.5 times more likely to smoke compared to the general population. It is therefore extraordinary that one-third of mental health trusts ban the use of e-cigarettes completely, while three-quarters of NHS trusts are mistakenly concerned about ‘second-hand’ e-cigarette vapour.

“This is unacceptable,” Lamb noted. “Those with mental ill health are being badly let down and NHS England appear to have failed to give this any priority. NHS England’s default policy should be that e-cigarettes should be permitted in mental health units.”