Davies continues fight for e-cigarette users

Rochdale Lib Dem MEP Chris Davies has vowed to continue to campaign for e-cigarette users after a key European Parliament committee voted to restrict e-cigs yesterday.

MEPs voted in committee to treat e-cigarettes as medicines, reducing their availability compared to tobacco and putting big new costs on users.

E-cigarettes work by vaporising nicotine that is then inhaled, providing nicotine addicts with their ‘hit’ without many of the carcinogens and secondhand smoke produced by conventional cigarettes.

Many smokers have instead become ‘vapers’ and claim it has helped them become healthier.

The issue will now be the subject of a vote by the full European Parliament in the autumn.

Speaking after the vote Mr Davies said: “In an ideal world no-one would be addicted to nicotine but we don’t live in an ideal world and it is better to vape than to smoke.

"E-cigs are a potential game changer in the fight against tobacco because smokers find them enjoyable to use. They can help people break their addiction in a way that conventional nicotine replacement therapies will never do. They could save millions of lives.”

Liberal Democrat MEPs were joined by the Conservatives and UKIP to vote against the new restrictions but Labour MEPs voted to reduce e-cigarette use.

Mr Davies commented: “I have been contacted by hundreds of constituents who have had their lives improved by e-cigarettes. Labour MEPs may think they are protecting people from themselves but restricting e-cigarettes will only hurt vapers and their families as they turn back to tobacco.

“We now have only a few weeks to change minds and try and win the vote in the full Parliament.”