An alternative to tobacco for some, but with potentially toxic effects for others, the electronic cigarette is the subject of heated debate. Requested by the government, a report on the risk benefits of e-cigarettes should be submitted by the High Council of Public Health (HCSP) soon.
Debates are also lively in Brussels. E-cigarette users believe that the European directive on tobacco products aims to undermine the e-cigarette. " The drafting of the directive was heavily influenced by the tobacco industry , Says the doctor Philippe Presles, member of the scientific council of the Association for electronic cigarette users (Aiduce). The vapers denounce the opacity of the lobbies. On Monday February 8, the European Commission refused to make its relations with the tobacco industry transparent.
No tobacco product or medicine
The European directive on tobacco products, and in particular its article 20 on electronic cigarettes, should be transposed by ordinance into French law before the end of the year. Electronic cigarette users, or vapers, by the voice of Aiduce, are already considering a legal challenge to this article 20. This can only be done once the directive has been transposed into national law.
This directive had already given rise to long debates on the status of electronic cigarettes at the end of 2013. Neither a tobacco product nor a medicine, the electronic cigarette is a common consumer product. Article 20 establishes rules on conditioning, packaging, prohibits certain additives, limits the nicotine content in the refill liquid to 20 milligrams per milliliter and the refill cartridges to 2 milliliters. Beyond this threshold of 20 mg / ml, the product is considered a drug.
« These technical restrictions imposed by these regulations only serve to protect the inefficient products of subsidiaries of the tobacco industry. », Contests Aiduce. If this directive " tends towards more transparency and more security "Says Clémentine Lequillerier, lecturer at the faculty of law of Malakoff (University Paris-Descartes)," the fact of having introduced the electronic cigarette in the directive on tobacco products maintains confusion in the mind of the consumer ».
Source : Lemonde.fr
