There is a good deal of debate around at the moment as to whether ecigs are a good or a bad thing. Many people say that they have given up smoking by using them. In truth, I don't really feel that you can truly say you have become a non smoker if you are still inhaling something with nicotine in it and paying out money to a big business in order to do so. We also really do not have enough study to understand the long term effects.
The argument put forward is that it must be better than smoking a tobacco cigarette. This feels to me a little like a gangster in a Quentin Tarantino movie saying "I'm only going to break one of your fingers instead of all of them, that's so much better for you. You're welcome!"
The latest news is that there is to be tighter regulation...This is based on the fact that children are starting to use ecigarettes to ease themselves into smoking real ones. This seems to be something that is clearly a bad thing. It aims to stop adults from buying them for childen as well. There are sadly adults out there who have been doing this. If you are buying ecigs for your children then you could hardly be surprised if they started to smoke real ones later. Some 41% of 15-year-olds who smoke say they usually buy their cigarettes from someone else, rather than from a shop, according to Department of Health figures. That's quite an interesting thing to think about.
Here is the latest update on the proposals, as reported by BBC news...
Under-18s in England are to be banned from buying electronic cigarettes, the government has announced.
Experts say it is not yet known what harm the tobacco-free devices could inflict and that their contents could be damaging young people's health. An estimated 1.3m people in the UK use e-cigarettes which were designed to help smokers quit. Ministers also plan to make it illegal for adults to buy traditional cigarettes for anyone under 18.
"We do not yet know the harm that e-cigarettes can cause to adults, let alone to children, but we do know they are not risk free," Prof Dame Sally Davies, England's chief medical officer, said. "E-cigarettes can produce toxic chemicals and the amount of nicotine and other chemical constituents and contaminants, including vaporised flavourings, varies between products - meaning they could be extremely damaging to young people's health."
Katherine Devlin, president of the Electronic Cigarette Industry Trade Association, welcomed the changes in the law, saying they had been asking for it "for years".
"It's high time that it was mandated in law so that it can be robustly enforced," she added, pointing out that product labelling made it clear e-cigarettes were not for under-18s.
Anti-smoking charity Ash also welcomed the changes, but chief executive Deborah Arnott called for a retail licensing system that would mean cigarettes could be legally sold only in shops, not in car boot sales or markets.
No EU ban
The UK currently has few restrictions on the use of e-cigarettes, despite moves in some countries to ban them. Restrictions have recently been mooted in Scotland and Wales, where health policy is a devolved issue. A Welsh government spokesman said on Sunday it "fully" supported a ban on e-cigarettes for under-18s and was considering how such legislation could be introduced in Wales.
In Northern Ireland, the NI Chest Heart and Stroke charity is pressing the health minister to introduce a similar ban.
The law change for England will be introduced in Parliament this week as an amendment to the Children and Families Bill.
Labour said the policy on banning cigarettes for children was a "watered-down version of a policy that Labour called for last year" and that buying cigarettes for children should carry the same penalty as buying alcohol for underage drinkers. But it said restricting the sale of e-cigarettes to under-18s was a "sensible step".
From 2016, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency is expected to license e-cigarettes as a medicine in the UK. This will bring them in line with nicotine patches and gum, and allow the agency to apply rules around, for example, the purity of the nicotine in e-cigarettes.
MEPs have rejected calls for a blanket ban on the sale of e-cigarettes across the EU
However, under a compromise deal, strict limits will be placed on the amount of nicotine they contain, and individual EU member states will be able to introduce a national ban if they see fit.
If three or more member states chose that path, it could trigger an EU-wide ban.
'Statistics about smoking'
Smoking remains one of the biggest causes of death and illness in the UK, with around 100,000 people dying each year from illnesses linked to the habit.
Experts want to crack down on the number of young people smoking by bringing the law in line with restrictions on the sale of alcohol.
The new rules on adults buying cigarettes for under-18s could be in force by the autumn and may mean anyone caught buying cigarettes for a child could be given a £50 fixed penalty notice or a fine of up to £2,500.
"We must do all we can to help children lead a healthy life," public health minister Jane Ellison said.
If you are thinking that you would like to become a non smoker then hypnotherapy really can help to make all of the difference. Just give me a call on 07980 233160 or email me at [email protected] I would love to help.