E-cig rules could change

In response to a UK parliamentary report on electronic cigarettes, the Government has agreed to review e-cigarette regulations once EU legislation ceases to apply, according to a story by Carolyn Wickware for the Pharmaceutical Journal.
In its response to the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee’s report on e-cigarettes (see TR news report, Harm reduction within reach, August 17), the Government has agreed with recommendations for a review of e-cigarette regulation ‘to identify scope for change post-Brexit’.
The committee had recommended in its e-cigarettes report, published in August, that the regulations, ‘which are currently applied under EU legislation,’ should be changed as ‘part of a wider shift to a more risk-proportionate regulatory environment,’ in which restrictions, advertising rules and taxes ‘reflect the evidence on the relative harms of the various e-cigarette and tobacco products available’.
In its response, the Department of Health and Social Care said it was committed to a review ‘to re-appraise current regulation to ensure this continues to protect the nation’s health’.
The response added: ‘We will look to identify where we can sensibly deregulate without harming public health or where current EU regulations limit our ability to deal with tobacco’.
The government also committed to ‘consider reviewing the position on snus,’ which is banned within the EU outside of Sweden. The response document said it would consider whether snus would promote ‘proportional harm reduction’.