EU policy on e-cigarettes is a “dog’s dinner,” says UK regulator

The United Kingdom will continue to press for effective Europe-wide controls on electronic cigarettes because of public health concerns, a senior regulator has said.

Jeremy Mean, group manager of vigilance and risk management of medicines at the UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), said that there were anecdotal signs that more young people were trying e-cigarettes and that this must be properly monitored for any long term effects.

Concerns have been expressed that e-cigarettes could act as a gateway to tobacco use for young people, although some surveys had shown that use among children was rare and mostly confined to those who were already smoking or had smoked.

Mean also said that many unlicensed e-cigarettes now available today were poorly manufactured or liable to leak their contents or overheat. “We don’t know …