What can we do?

[Kate]

I think Intellicig are seeing £££££s signs in front of their eyes

[Kate]

Anybody who uses Facebook can help by joining this group:

Non-smokers shouldn't be forced to start smoking
http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?topic=...8070252908

[Kate]

This is Dr Joel's submission to the MHRA:

Quote:20100214UKCommentMLX364.doc

Regulation of nicotine containing products as proposed will do more harm than good from a public health perspective. E-cigarettes, snus and at least selected other low-risk tobacco and tobacco-related products should be made as readily available as cigarettes to enable smokers unable or unwilling to quit to transition to a much lower risk product that is more satisfying and most likely more effective than the prescription NRT products currently available.

I am a public health physician. I, and the organization I represent have no financial interest in any E-cigarette or any other tobacco-related enterprise. Over the past three years, in my capacity as the Chair of the Tobacco Control Task Force of the American Association of Public Health Physicians I have carefully studied and been deeply involved in the debate on and and implementation by FDA of the new federal FDA/Tobacco law.

FDA's proposed action and statements against E-cigarettes -- claiming they might be as hazardous or more hazardous than conventional cigarettes and claiming they might result in the recruitment of large number of teens to nicotine addiction were based on a total lack of information and were totally speculative in nature. FDA staff, on the urging by some ill-informed tobacco control activists complained that E-cigarette companies had not applied for FDA approval as drug-device combinations. The E-cigarette companies did not due so because they considered their products tobacco-related products not covered by the drug law or regulations.

In mid January I personally met with Dr. Joshua Sharfstein - Deputy Director of the Food and Drug Administration and a number of his key medical and legal staff. I verbally presented the case in favor of regulating E-cigarettes as a tobacco product rather than a "drug-device combination" and the public health importance of informing current and potential tobacco users of the huge differences in risk presented by the different classes of tobacco products. Conventional cigarettes are the most hazardous of all tobacco products. E-cigarettes promise to be the nicotine delivery product most acceptable to smokers who are otherwise unable or unwilling to quit their nicotine addiction. Conventional cigarettes kill about 1/3 of smokers and large numbers of non-smokers exposed to environmental cigarette smoke. The risk posed by E-cigarettes, as best we can tell is about 0.1% (one tenth of one percent) of the risk posed by conventional cigarettes. They emit no environmental tobacco smoke.

On the basis of my presentation at FDA, I was invited to formally submit a citizens petition to FDA to formally present, in writing, the case in favor of both regulating E-cigarettes as a tobacco product, and the potential public health benefit of this action by FDA. This last week I put two such petitions in the mail to FDA, with 303 pages of attachments. The first petition asks FDA to do this reclassification. The second asks for a press conference to follow-up their July 22, 2009 press conference that left so many (including some in the State of Utah) to erroneously believe that E-cigarettes are more risky than conventional cigarettes. All these materials are readily available for review and download on the Tobacco Issues page of our http://www.aaphp.org web site.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions about this communication or the attached document.

Joel L. Nitzkin, MD

[Kate]

Sign up to YouGov and tell them what you think about the topic 'Electronic Cigarettes' - http://my.yougov.com/go.aspx?id=580df147...ef160c5e05

EDIT
Oops, sorry this isn't what I thought it was, it's for market research not statements. Plz ignore.

[Kate]

There are 576 signatures on the No 10 petition now http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/ecigarettes/

3539 on the International one http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/s...cgi?vaping

[Kate]

It's No Smoking Day in the UK on 10th March - http://www.nosmokingday.org.uk/organisers/

This would be a good day to make some statements about closure of the nicotine market but I can't think of anything we could do yet.

Maybe we could all send an email to the No Smoking organisers on that day and tell them how many cigs we haven't smoked because of vaping or how long we've not smoked for or something that gives them an idea of how effective reduced harm products can be?

[moog]

They must know that there are people that can't/won't give up smoking....vaping is an alternative that might help these people break the tobacco cycle...

[Kate]

Yeah, it's going to be a bit of a challenge working out the best approach so we don't confuse the issue of cessation and swapping, especially with the MHRA nicotine ban being threatened.

I'm thinking it would be good to get their attention because they can be influential in government strategies but then again we need to stay clear of using health as a primary function of vaping and present it as a nicotine alternative.

My head hurts, .

[Kate]

Here's another UK petition, please sign if you're a UK resident - http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/vaping/

Thanks.