E-Cigarette Regulations in Europe

Published by Paul Larter on 12th Jan 2018

Vaping has been a subject of debate at the Third International Conference on Public Policy held in Singapore. Ben Hawkins and Stefanie Ettelt, both of which form the London of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, gave a presentation which was titled "Political controversy, the importance of electronic cigarette and regulation in Europe: A comparative study of political debates in England and Germany."

A non-profit organization, The International Association of Public Policy, was created in Paris, in December 2014. It promotes scientific research in the public policy field, organizes international conferences and also develops opportunities for the exchange of experience and knowledge.

The International Conference on Public Policy pulled over 1300 participants from 63 countries. There were 268 sessions, 20 topics, and 1680 presented papers.

Hawkins and Ettelt point out that, in England, "the process of developing electronic cigarette regulation resulted in considerable controversy among researchers, policy makers, and advocates, whereas in Germany the same process didn't generate the same degree of contests."

The differences between these two nations are strange considering that both had to comply and enact a single law - the Tobacco Products Directive.

They both argued that the differences boiled down to 3 separate issues:

The first factors relate to the importance given to electronic cigarettes by policymakers and public health advocates as a result of existing control policies of tobacco, their smoking rate effects, development of the tobacco market and consumer incentives and tobacco companies to change to electronic cigarettes.

The second factors relate to the institutional context of the formulation of public health policies which determine the decision-making pathways and the involved policy actors.

The third set of factors points out the differences in policy that shape public health decisions, and result in preferences to legitimize these decisions. "Forbtgese factors to be explored, the paper focuses on policy analysis, tobacco control literature, public health, and political science."

England has got a comprehensive list of tobacco measures, which includes legislation to ban cigarettes promotion and advertisement, ban public smoking, and strict rules on labeling and packaging, while German's approach is fragmented - and even allows cigarette ads on road billboards

So, England has had more success in combating tobacco-related illnesses, and there's almost o pressure on German smokers to switch or stop smoking. In Germany, the vaping population is estimated to only about 1%, compared with England's 6%. This bigger vapers' body caused a situation that made English Government come up with a legislation due to the rapidly increasing number of people who switched from smoking. But the then, some might argue that things were working perfectly well in the market without legislation.

Other nations in Europe were glad to subject to any legislation that the EU created, except England that got involved in a debate on the evidence. "Without regarding the kinds of positions they adopted or the organization they represented on the issue, all respondents abided by the principles of evidence-based policy making and claimed they were led by evidence to develop their positions on the case."