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June 12, 2013 1:00 pm
Electronic cigarettes face ban in move to regulate market By Andrew Jack
All electronic cigarettes currently sold in the UK would be banned under regulations imposing tougher safety and quality controls to be introduced by 2016.
The Medicines and Healthcare products regulatory agency said all nicotine-containing products would be subject to a medicines license and smokers should instead use nicotine replacement therapy.
The move follows a longstanding consultation on ecigarettes and related products, a fast growing industry that already generates £100m in annual sales in the UK.
Health officials said the UK would await Europe-wide regulations due to be introduced in 2016, and had decided against any intermediate ban partly given the trade off that ecigarettes create far less known harm than smoking.
They stressed that companies could seek to apply for a medicines license, and that they envisaged authorised products could be made as widely available as cigarettes in shops and corner stores.
But they said analysis of scientific literature and studies the regulators had themselves carried out identified wide ranging variations in quality including nicotine and other ingredients.
Some countries are facing legal challenges to restrictions imposed on ecigarettes, with outright bans in Brazil and Singapore.
Adrian Everett, head of Zandera, which sells E-Lites, one brand of ecigarettes, said: “Restricting the ability of the public to use ecigarettes would be a significant public health loss.”
But he said his company welcomed the call for high standards and said it would comply with the new rules.
