I'm a vaper, I quit smoking and started vaping in July 2014 and since then i have seen a big change in the market, better devices with a wide range of intended users, be it the mouth to lunger's out there, the flavour chaser's or the cloud blower's. However 2016 for us in the EU, will see another big change in the market, and not for the good of those who switch to vaping. For the past few years the governments have seen a drop in tobacco tax's, Big tobacco have seen a drop in profits and those pharmaceutical companies that sell products to quit smoking have seen a drop in profits which has lead to the introduction of tight regulations being introduced.
Article 20 of the TPD deals directly with e-cigarettes, putting in tight controls to 'regulate' them, saying it's for the safety of consumers, however it is in effect a major ban depending on how those rules are interpreted. Don't believe me, then look to those countries that implemented the rules as soon as they could, like italy and spain. Shops have closed down and the industry there is virtually dead. In other countries, like here in the UK there is still a battle to try to get things reversed, for example the Totally Wicked court case in the EU courts. However all the attention has been on the vaping side of things, both those who wrote and defend the TPD and those who are trying to stop it have never considered the wider implications of what this, in my opinion is a poorly thought out law. I'm going to pick out two of the biggest problems this law has unintentionally has created.
The first major one is the law about nicotine being sold in a maximum of 10ml bottles and a max strength of 20mg/ml. For some that may not seem big problem as it's only about 10% of the vaping user's who this would affect the most. However do you think the whole nicotine industry just popped up for vaper's? In fact were only a tiny fraction of the nicotine market. Did you know that a third of all commercially sold pesticides and insecticides contain nicotine as his the biggest purchaser of nicotine? Do you really think a farmer wants to buy in tens of thousands of 10ml bottles of pesticide, open each individual bottle to put into a sprayer (which would also be illegal as tank sizes have to be 2ml or less) just to spray a field? So congratulations to those in the EU for killing off a third of the pesticide market, we look forward to the lower crop yields and higher priced food.
You think that bad though, the second ones even worse. Any tank that COULD contain nicotine and produces a vapor must be smaller than 2ml and have a dedicated refill mechanism. I'll get the most obvious bit out of the way in that the 'refill' system has still be made. Apart from that again for most vapers that doesn't sound too bad it's just a small section of us that need larger tanks and go through juice like it's going out of fashion. Of course there are a lot of other things out there that produce vapor and could, in theory have nicotine, obviously those designed specifically would be fog machines and humidifiers. Go into your kitchen though and have a look around, see that kettle there, it's bigger than 2ml isn't it and when your boiling water, there's a vapor coming out the spout. It would be very easy to just add nicotine into that water so it COULD contain nicotine and thus would be illegal under the TPD. Worst case scenario though you could just put a sauce pan of water on the stove, but again there would be vapor coming off and it COULD contain nicotine so there also illegal to buy. So not only has the TPD made your food dearer to buy due to the banning of a third of the pesticides, it's also made buying the implements to cook said food illegal to buy.
So congratulations to the EU for making a law so poorly written that it means us poor citizens could, if it was carried to the full extent, actually starve. Bravo, BRAVO.
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