• March 29, 2024

Australian e-cig rules illogical

 Australian e-cig rules illogical

Forty international and Australian academics are pushing for the legalisation in Australia of nicotine in electronic cigarettes, according to a skynews.com.au story.

Electronic cigarette devices are legal in Australia but the sale and possession of the nicotine used in them is illegal.

The New Nicotine Alliance (NNA), a not-for-profit body that advocates safer alternatives to tobacco smoking, has asked the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) to exempt nicotine from the Schedule 7 dangerous poisons list, at concentrations of 3.6 per cent or less.

And the academics have written to the TGA in support of the application from the NNA. They say it’s discriminatory and unethical to allow the sale of nicotine in tobacco while banning a ‘much lower-risk’ alternative.

They argue electronic cigarettes will save lives by allowing smokers to access the nicotine they’re addicted to without the tobacco smoke that causes most of the health problems.

In addition, a change in the law would render unnecessary the risks now taken by people buying nicotine on the black market. A one-year supply can be bought online for $2.60.

‘I just don’t understand the logic of having nicotine in the deadly form of tobacco cigarettes widely available while nicotine in the much safer form of e-cigarettes is outlawed,’ said Professor Ann McNeill from Kings College London, UK.

The full story is at: http://www.skynews.com.au/news/national/2016/09/07/academics-slam–unethical–e-cigarette-ban.html.