The European Parliament hasn’t banned their use. But it is going to impose restrictions on the kind of e cigarette that can be sold.

In particular, users or vapers as they call themselves will no longer be able to get some of the reusable and refillable devices that deliver the biggest nicotine hit.

The growing community of vapers believe it’s an assault on a product that is saving their lives by removing the temptation of tobacco.

Improving health

Christena Heseltine from North Shields in Tyneside has been using e cigarettes for five years.

She credits them with improving her health, but she also enjoys them. Her daughter Kirsteen is another user, and husband Ron, who has terminal oesophageal cancer, has recently joined them.

It’s unclear whether smoking caused his cancer but vaping has allowed him to continue to enjoy nicotine without smoking.

Christena is outraged at the European Parliament’s decision. She thinks it’ll ramp up costs for vapers but also make it impossible to obtain the high nicotine devices she often uses.

She says many frustrated users will go back to smoking, while others her included may look to the black market.

Kirsteen, Ron and Christena Heseltine all swapped tobacco for e cigarettes

She said “I’ll be forced to break the law, become a criminal, and that is scary.

“The vaping community has worked hard to make sure it’s as safe as possible. We have worked with trading standards to ensure the nicotine juices are safe and properly labelled.

“But now if I go to the black market, I won’t know whether the nicotine I’m getting is safe, so the work we have done will have been for nothing.”

Wrong direction

Vapers did have some allies in the European Parliament. North East Conservative MEP Martin Callanan, fought against the EU proposals, and is disappointed most of his colleagues backed them.

He said “This is going in completely the wrong direction. E cigarettes have the ability to convert thousands of smokers to vaping as they call it. That is a thousand times safer than smoking tobacco cigarettes.

Fda to begin regulating e-cigarettes – los angeles times

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Regulators do not yet have scientific evidence for a rule on flavorings, but the subject is still being researched, Mitchell Zeller, director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products, told reporters.

“There are far more questions than answers,” he said, adding that the new regulation would provide a “framework” for additional rules in the future.

Even without restrictions on advertising or flavorings, the new rule represents a “significant step in the agency’s ability to regulate tobacco products,” Zeller said. “I call the market for e cigarettes the wild, wild West in the absence of regulations.”

The proposed rule, which must go through a public comment process and overcome potential legal challenges before becoming final, would impose restrictions on other tobacco related products as well, including nicotine gels and pipe tobacco.

Companies would have to register the products and their ingredients with the FDA, but would have two years to do so.