New EU bill. No curb on e-ciggs.

[NickHead]

European lawmakers Tuesday approved a long-fought and divisive anti-smoking bill aimed at making cigarettes less attractive to youngsters but threw out a bid to curb sales of increasingly popular e-cigarettes.

The European Parliament refused to classify electronic cigarettes as medicinal products, which would have restricted their sale to pharmacies.

E-cigarettes, which are booming worldwide, will therefore continue to be available in tobacco shops or specialist stores, but will be banned for sale to minors and no advertising will be allowed.

 

[NickHead]

Another recent post from Reuters.

Ann McNeill, a professor of tobacco addiction at the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London, said the findings should persuade health experts to embrace e-cigarettes as a useful weapon in the battle against smoking.

"Electronic cigarettes are the most exciting new development in tobacco control over the last few decades as we have witnessed a rapid uptake of these much less harmful products by smokers," she said in an emailed comment.

"The popularity of e-cigarettes suggests that we now have a product that can compete with cigarettes, thus heralding the first real possibility that cigarette smoking could be phased out."