Call to Action - Please write to your local MP

Last week we informed you about the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) report on electronic cigarette research, this week we are urging you to please write to your local MP asking them to support an early day motion calling for debate before the UK Parliment about the upcoming Tobacco Products Directive implementation on 20th of May this year.
 

Parliament UK
Early day motion 1441
E-CIGARETTES AND THE TOBACCO PRODUCTS DIRECTIVE

Session: 2015-16
Date tabled: 04.05.2016
Primary sponsor: Anne Main

That this House agrees with the Royal College of Physicians that it is crucial that e-cigarettes are priced as advantageously as possible in relation to tobacco.
Believes that the EU Tobacco Products Directive would significantly inhibit the development and use of harm-reduction products by smokers and cost lives.
Further agrees with Public Health England that e-cigarettes are around 95 per cent less harmful than smoking, and that nearly half the population does not realise that e-cigarettes are much less harmful than smoking.
Further believes that restricting advertising will have the perverse effect of reducing the rate at which cigarette use is declining.
Notes that the total cost of smoking to society, including healthcare, social care, lost productivity, litter and fires, was conservatively estimated by Action on Smoking and Health to be around £14 billion per year.
And calls on the Government to exclude e-cigarettes and other harm-reduction products from the Tobacco Products Directive.

You can write to your local MP using this website: https://www.writetothem.com/ Please be polite and explain why you feel the TPD will impact your choices for vapour products, and how e-cigs have changed your life. You need to be sure to urge your MP to support the "Early Day Motion 1441"

If you have not read the Royal College of Physicians' report and shared it with your friends and family members, please do so. The report highlights what we as vapers have known all along, here are just a few of the key points of the full report.

• Smoking is the biggest avoidable cause of death and disability, and social inequality in health, in the UK.
• People smoke because they are addicted to nicotine, but are harmed by other constituents of tobacco smoke.
• E-cigarettes are proving much more popular than NRT as a substitute and competitor for tobacco cigarettes.
• There are concerns that e-cigarettes will “renormalise” smoking, but to date, there is no evidence of this occurring to any significant degree in the UK.
• In the interests of public health it is important to promote the use of e-cigarettes, NRT and other non-tobacco nicotine products as widely as possible.
• There is a need for regulation to reduce adverse effects of e-cig use but the regulation should not be allowed to significantly inhibit the development and use of harm-reduction products.

It is excellent news that this comprehensive report fully recognises the importance of e-cigs as harm-reduction, however it may have come too late to prevent the damage that will be caused by the Tobacco Products directive coming into force next month, which will significantly inhibit the development and availability of these products. Be sure you have also read our blog post about the TPD (Tobacco Products Directive).