BLACKBURN, United Kingdom The days of electronic cigarettes could be numbered if proposals from the European Commission that would effectively take all current e cigarettes off the market move forward.

According to documents obtained by Totally Wicked Ltd., an electronic cigarette company based in the United Kingdom, the European Commission drafted proposals as part of the negotiations taking place in Brussels, Belgium, to revise the Tobacco Products Directive (TPD). Among other things, the commission proposes a ban on all refill liquids, a ban on refillable atomizers, a ban on almost all flavors, and restrictions on nicotine levels.

“Behind closed doors in Brussels, unaccountable and unelected bureaucrats are drafting proposals that will deny millions of existing and former smokers access to a safer alternative to tobacco cigarettes,” said Fraser Cropper, CEO of Totally Wicked. “These proposals are based on a total lack of knowledge of how an electronic cigarette functions and, more importantly, these proposals are being drafted without any consultation with the people who rely on these products to prevent them returning to tobacco cigarettes.”

Taken together, according to the company, these proposals represent a ban on all currently available e cigarettes.

Electronic cigarettes have been the subject of debate in the European Union lately. In early October, members of the European Parliament (MEPs) voted against regulating e cigarettes as medicines. Instead, e cigarettes will be regulated along the same lines as tobacco products.

In June, the U.K.’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency said it will treat e cigarettes as medicines, “so that people using these products have the confidence they are safe, are of the right quality and work.” The agency will regulate other products containing nicotine in a similar fashion however, cigarettes are exempt from the rule, as CSNews Online previously reported.

Health officials and the e cigarette industry in the United Kingdom are now seeking to clarify what the European Parliament’s moves mean.

Former german chancellor stays one step ahead of european nannies, hoards cigarettes – hit & run : reason.com

Cigarette filter – wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Credit Bundesarchiv, B 145 Bild F048646 0033 / Wegmann, Ludwig / CC BY SAThe 94 year old former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt has hoarded 38,000 menthol cigarettes in his house, fearing that they could be banned by the European Union.

From The Local

Schmidt, 94, has a carte blanche when it comes to smoking. Whether on live television or indoors at political conventions, the former Chancellor is allowed to light up where he pleases.

But it would seem even he is not above EU law, as central parliament in Brussels is considering banning his favourite vice menthol cigarettes.

One step ahead, Schmidt has apparently stashed 200 cartons of his preferred brand, Reyno, in his house, the Hamburger Morgenpost revealed. This means that he has enough to keep him on a packet a day until he turns 100.

Responsible for outing his secret is Chancellor candidate Peer Steinbr ck of Schmidt’s old party the Social Democrats.

Schmidt, a well known lover of menthol cigarettes, is not being overly prepared. The European commission is hoping to ban menthol cigarettes. The proposed ban on menthol cigarettes is only the latest example of the nannying instinct exhibited by many legislators in the European Union, which has already proposed or implemented bans on unsupervised children blowing up balloons, refillable olive oil jugs, and pictures of babies on baby formula.