My Vaping Letter to Parliament and the EU... and Every Other Representative I Have

I know. You get it. I vape.

But I had to do something about this nonsense regulation that's coming out very soon. It's a directive that the bureaucrats at the EU have imposed upon us that means we have to do something about vaping. "They're concerned about our health." but apparently not as concerned about the fact that stifling this market will diminish it's effectiveness and either send people back to cigarettes, or not convince them to switch from cigarettes resulting in a near guaranteed early death. Yay.

Yeah. I disagree with this. So I did what I could, by which I mean write a letter to every single representative I have. In Holyrood, Westminster and Brussels. If you want to preserve vaping, keep your drippers, large tanks, and continue buying custom flavours (or at least preserving as many of these commodities as possible within the confines of the Directive) I'd suggest doing the same. 

You can do so here.

Here's mine:

Dear representative, 

I am writing to you to express my concern about regulations regarding Vaping Nictone a.k.a E-Ciggarettes. 

Allow me to offer some context. I have been vaping for 3 months now and it is the longest I have gone without a cigarette in 14 years. Vaping helped me give up smoking. Not only that, but I have become part of a much larger community of fellow vapers with their own stories on how they quit smoking and how vaping changed their lives. 

The vaping community is huge, and contains people of many walks of life. There are conventions promoting the latest innovations and products and flavours. 

There are successful businesses and retailers opening up selling the latest products, offering the latest advice and mixing and selling their own unique flavours of e-liquid. 

There are people who have embraced vaping as a hobby, making their own coils for their atomizers and inventing new ideas on how to achieve personal vaping preferences and as a way to be creative. 

https://www.instagram.com/cleanbuilds/https://instagram.com/twistedmesses/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBpwZoxG3d0 

As you can see the industry had moved far beyond the types of e-ciggarettes we used to see on the high street a few years ago ("Cigalikes"), and has literally grown a life of it's own gaining support and endorsement from all over the world. 

Vaping cannot be classed as smoking. E-ciggarettes are not cigarettes. They're 95% less harmful than smoking. They are merely guilty by association due to how similar they are to smoking, but this is partially how they achieve their success. 

The success of this market can be also be attributed to the fact that it's largely unregualted and was free from intervention in order to gain enough momentum to rival Tobacco. 

Vaping works as a cessation method, it's far safer, it doesn't harm people passively (Article 9. Page 64.) enables you to control the level of nictone you're taking (thanks to being able to mix your own e-liquid or order it at your preferred level and quantity), doesn't contain harmful chemicals (except nicotine, which on it's own equates to the same toxicity as caffeine) and is an overall more satisfying and enjoyable experience than smoking due to the flavours available, the fact you can legally vape indoors (so far, and I hope it stays that way) and the added benefit of knowing it's not guaranteed to end your life prematurely.
Vaping is directly saving lives, driving people away from tobacco because of it's convenience, the community, the hobby, the enjoyment and the overall benefits to vaping over smoking. Regulations only serve to stifle this market and drive people back to cigarettes, cause businesses to close, force manufacturers in China to look elsewhere and create a negative public perception of a product that is encouraging thousands of people to better themselves. 

The TPD published by the EU in 2014 and due to come into effect in 2016 will place drastically unprecedented regulations on a product that (judging by the content of the regulation) will have an impact on people's freedom to use, buy and evolve these products. Regulations such as these will have an impact on people's ability to choose for themselves and seem unfairly biased against devices such as refillable tanks and in favor of outdated "Cigalike" products you see on Petrol Station counters and Bargain supermarkets which are now considered ineffective and obsolete within the vaping industry. However, this hasn't stopped Tobacco companies from endorsing "Cigalikes". These products invariably don't work and result in people going back to using cigarettes. It's also worth noting that these regulations don't impact these inferior devices, as these "Cigalikes" already meet the requirements of the directive. The regulations seem targeted towards refillable and rebuild-able atomizers which are more successful in encouraging people to continue vaping or upgrade to more successful cessation devices instead of going back to cigarettes.
The fact that the industry has gone unregulated thus far has enabled it to evolve and innovate the product to the point where it achieves success in being a smoking cessation device. The vaping industry doesn't need regulation. It deserves endorsement, encouragement and the freedom to continue to be successful. 

The Tobacco Products Directive, although giving member states the ability to enforce their own regulations to meet the directive, will harm the industry and it's utterly fallacious to justify this directive on the basis that the EU is concerned about health, as these regulations will only serve to drive more people back to smoking and the health risks and deaths associated with them. 

I would encourage any governing body and the members within them to educate themselves on the impact of meddling with this industry.
More sources for consideration: 

http://www.ecigarettedirect.co.uk/ashtray-blog/2015/05/eu-tpd-e-cigs.htmlhttp://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/vaping-bans-irrational-and-illiberal/17051#.VlLktXbhCCo 

Please feel free to contact me regarding more information on this. It is important to me and many other ex-smokers that these regulations are as mild as possible while meeting the directive. Wales' approach to vaping is considerably worrying, and I wouldn't not want to see this represented in any other part of the U.K. 

Please approach this issue with caution, understanding and an open mind or risk driving many more people to their deaths. 

Yours Faithfully

So my informal opinion is this is fucking bullshit. Although it's not it's not a dictated requirement to impose what the EU say to the letter, it's only a Directive, it's still the EU taking the higher moral authority, and diminishing the autonomy of individuals right to make up their minds about vaping. This is all based on the fact that "we don't know the long term effects." which is true, but there's a mountain of evidence that I've included in my letter that compares the relative safety of smoking to vaping. People seem to forget that the vast majority of vapers are ex smokers, and are making conscious, personal decisions to better themselves. Whether that be to help them quit or simply find a safer alternative. No government has the right to take this paternal position.

Also, this isn't the government's fucking job. If we want to inhale nicotine in a more favourable way than tobacco that's our fucking decision. If we want to vape to help us to quit smoking that's our fucking decision. If businesses want to allow vaping indoors it's their fucking decision. If people what to buy eliquids in certain flavours and nicotine quantities it's their fucking decision. Are we noticing a theme here?

Fuck off. Leave us in peace. Wales? Fuck you.