Hi, my name is Stacy, and I am a smoker, lol. Or at least was! I smoked for 16+ years, probably about 40 a day by the end. I tried loads of things to stop smoking, but none worked. Until recently, when I started using eCigs, and have been smoke free for nearly a month, with no plans to ever smoke again!
People were worried they were dangerous, to users and bystanders, but a recent study (http://antithrlies.com/2013/08/08/breaking-news-new-study-shows-no-risk-from-e-cigarette-contaminants/) by CASAA has found them to be completely safe, and compared to how dangerous tobacco cigs are, you'd be mental to say they are a bad thing!
Currently 1.3 million people in the UK have switched from smoking, to "vaping" with eCigs, just like me. That 1.3 million (and rising!) that have drastically reduced the chance on tobacco related disease (Notably, cancer!), which will mean to you (even non-smokers!) that 1.3 million people won't be draining the NHS and your tax money due to their lifestyle choice! For those close to me (Notably my Fiance and 3 daughters) that I am going to be around for a little longer!
However....
In the UK, the MHRA (Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency) plans to regulate the eCigs and eLiquids as non-prescription medicines from 2016, at which point they would be considered as a treatment option for the NHS... Sounds good, right?
Well, no. They want to regulate it, saying it is unsafe (disproven by CASAA!!). Here is a quote from The Independent: "The MHRA said the market needed to be regulated because existing ecigarettes were not good enough,-" (Good enough to stop 1.3 million people smoking, but OK, go on...) "-with contaminants found in some products-" (disproven by CASAA) "-and nicotine levels varying widely-" (disproven by CASAA) "-. Once ecigarettes are licensed, manufacturers will have to prove the quality of their products-" (They are already regulated by the General Product regulations, that means the nicotine containing liquid undergoes random testing by Trading Standards, ingredients listed, childproof bottles, product recalls if faults are found and more.) "- and demonstrate that they deliver the correct amount of nicotine, although they will not need to do clinical trials."- (All medicines and medical devices have to undergo clinical trials, according to the MHRA's own website, at huge expense to the manufacturer. Only the pharmaceutical companies and tobacco companies could afford this, wiping out hundreds of small business' across Europe. So they are actually lying in that last claim!!)
This argument is based on research(which, funnily enough, has been discredited) by BAT (British American Tobacco), a large tobacco company that makes Dunhill, Benson and Hedges and Lucky Strike. Coincidentally, as this news broke, BAT bought out their own eCig (which is horrible by the way, tastes awful and the battery only lasts an hour!), which apparently meets all regulations the MHRA will bring in, just as that same regulation will cripple and destroy the small businesses that are responsible for the current eCig boom, and put the entire market profit in the hands of Big Tobacco, Big Pharma and the governments hands!!
So, after 2016, parts for my eCig will no longer be available when they wear out, and my favorite flavors of eLiquid will no longer be available, so I will have to buy MHRA approved eCigs, manufactured by Big Tobacco companies, which if the current batch are anything to go by, will be awful and, since the government and Big Tobacco companies need their billions of £'s, they will be just as expensive as normal Cigs! So, I will just go back to smoking, drain the NHS, and die pretty soon of cancer then.....
I would honestly like to stop this! And so should you, smoker or not. There is a petition going to stop this here - http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/51572 - that I would like to get more people to sign. I would also like to raise awareness, so will be posting this everywhere, and hope people will share it to help stop the destruction of a product that could save millions of lives. If you don't smoke, then you should still be aware and sign the petition, as I am sure you know and care about someone who smokes, or you don't want your tax money spent trying to save us smokers from diseases bought on by ourselves, or if you have ever known anyone who battled with cancer caused by smoking, or even if you don't like smoking because of second hand smoke, as there is none when using eCigs. I don't want to glamorize smoking, nor make it OK to do so in a public place, I just want to live longer and enjoy using eCigs, and stop such a brilliant, and quite frankly life saving device from being stamped out because it dents the governments and Big Tobacco companies profits from tobacco!
These things seriously benefit everyone, so please, I don't ask very often (never in fact!) for you to share something, but please do so with this, and help us stop the MHRA from making a huge mistake.
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