EU and FDA say nyah nyah ny nyah na - smokers and vapers unite please

If you are familiar with EU regulations on e cigs  -  see the clearest explanation on Clive Bates blog here, and the fact that the World Health Organisation wish to classify all nicotine containing products as "Tobacco" Products, yesterday's FDA proposal published in the morning (in UK), is no surprise.

Whereas if you live in the USA, you have some power over the FDA, the citizens of the EU, have virtually none. 

Some of the worst clangers I can see on the FDA proposals which are so mind bogglingly repetitive don't bother to read them - but perhaps read Michael Siegel HERE, are the fact that the "science" they used to formulate their decisions, was antediluvian and cringingly ignorant, and that all products introduced onto the market since February 2007 will have to apply for licensing (from the FDA of course). Well, anyway, those are the two aspects that struck me. 2007!!! FFS! And the science seemed from then too!

Both the EU the FDA have made sure that the winners will be the three best friends, Big Tobacco, Big Pharma and the Regulatory Industries, who will be able to afford (or reap) the costs of regulation on their future products, secure in the knowledge that innovation by the small man will be securely stifled while they prosper.

And there they are with their thumbs in their ears, fingers waving, shouting nyah nyah ny nyah na to all the smokers and vapers in the world. 

Whether you are a smoker or a vaper, this concerns both vapers and smokers. Taking nicotine the electronic way is an option that we should both be entitled to. Everyone should work together. I am very keen on that, being myself an angry smoker who vapes only because I prefer it. I don't expect every smoker who tries it to prefer vaping to smoking. But the very best personal vapourisers, the ones that really please, are the NEW ones. The EU regulations and the FDA proposed regulations are another screw in the Tobacco Control Torture regime for global citizens, as it is the NEW and INNOVATIVE that will be suffocated i.e the really good stuff, that works

So I ask myself,  which corporations will be advanced by the new regulations? And the answer, to me at least, seams to be, The Corporations of Money and Greed - Big Tobacco, Big Pharma, Big Anti Tobacco, Government Regulatory Bodies, and the rapacious European Union.

What can we do?

We can write in and comment on the FDA proposals for 75 days from now (Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov  Follow the instructions for submitting comments.)
and
Citizens of the USA can write to their congressman/woman telling their own stories.

In the UK, you could vote for UKIP in the May EU Elections so that we can frighten our government into listening to its people.
and
You could sign EFVI - The European Free Vaping Initiative whether you are smoker, vaper or simply friend or relative.

Everything that is happening to smokers and vapers, is going to affect to us BOTH.

As an angry smoker, I feel furious that the sods who made my life so miserable as a smoker are doing it all over again. Within me, the angry smoker and the angry vaper are united!