"This Directive Matters To You"

Listen, it's a mundane Tuesday. Instead of wasting your free time playing Sugar Crush on Facebook, or whatever, would you prefer to do something today which has potential to benefit almost a billion people Europe-wide?

You would? Great! Then please read a remarkably excellent article from former ASH Director Clive Bates on how to object - most strongly, I'd urge - to the recent, and daft, EU Tobacco Products Directive.

On 19th December 2012, the EU produced a a proposal for new laws controlling tobacco and nicotine products like e-cigarettes.  The proposal includes a justification for the measures with draft legal text and comes with supporting documentation. It covers a wide range of issues, including: labelling and warnings on cigarette packs; branding restrictions; control of flavours and additives; tracking and tracing to prevent smuggling and counterfeiting; and measures that apply to smokeless tobacco products and nicotine-containing products like e-cigarettes. The proposed directive contains measures that make it harder or impossible for smokers to switch from cigarettes to much less dangerous nicotine products – an approach that will cause much more death and disease than it prevents.  If you smoke, use e-cigarettes, or if have friends or relatives that smoke, or if you are concerned about the health damage from smoking, then this directive matters to you.

Helpfully underlined is the bit that would apply to many who pop by this part of the internet.

I strongly encourage you to go and read the whole thing, it gives all the info you need to object to one of the most absurd EU directives - either proposed or enacted - ever to have been imagined on the back of big pharma influence.

One aspect I will add, though, seeing as Bates didn't mention it, is that this directive has also been steamrollered through despite two significant occurrences which should have seen it shelved.

Firstly, it entirely ignored the EU public consultation it purports to follow. That is even after they erased 82,000 responses which they didn't like, but conveniently 'found' others hidden away which they refuse to let anyone see.

"European Commission's health directorate claims to have received a response from governments in other ways to support the ban on snus but refuses to show them."

And if that isn't bad enough, the Commissioner who drafted this directive is currently being investigated in a Maltese court for corruption over bribes he was alleged to have solicited while working on it ... but the EU thought it perfectly sound to go ahead anyway.

So, please take some time out of your evening to visit Clive Bates's article and put your name to a letter, e-mail, or mortar bomb other missive objecting to a thoroughly evil piece of proposed EU regulation.