With the NSW Cancer Council claiming that a rapidly expanding e-cigarette industry is unregulated, CEO of the Australasian Association of Convenience Stores (AACS) Jeff Rogut said the sale of legal e-cigarettes is one of a range of solutions Government should be investigating as having the potential to reduce the incidence of smoking.
“With the NSW Government’s proposed laws on the sale of e-cigarettes countered by the Opposition seeking a more restrictive approach, AACS has urged both parties to put aside the political posturing and recognise the potential for e-cigarettes to help some smokers in their efforts to quit,” Mr Rogut said.
“Here we have a product with the potential to become one of the solutions to reduce smoking and yet the immediate response appears to be restrict and tax,” Mr Rogut added.
“There are many other areas in which Government could target its anti-smoking efforts, not least cracking down on the flourishing market for illicit tobacco.”
The NSW Cancer Council claimed that e-cigs were displayed next to confectionery or promotional items in 5% of tobacco retailers surveyed.
NSW Cancer Council claims that “The council was worried the use of confectionary (sic) and fruit flavours in the liquid nicotine of e-cigarettes was an attempt to lure young people to smoke” is of concern as liquid nicotine is a banned substance which honest retailers should not be selling, Mr Rogut said.
He also said that what is really missing here is enforcement of current laws.
The view of Mark Kagan of e-cig supplier Logic e-cigs is that there should be no flavoured e-cigs, just the normal tobacco and menthol flavours.
“They should not be sold to minors. There should be 18+ signs on them, but to ban them or include them under Tobacco Legislation as Queensland did on January 1 this year is wrong,” he said.
“First of all they have no tobacco. There is no combustion so no tar or smoke. Those points alone make them safer and healthier than smoking. E-cigs have so few chemicals and if they assist one person to transfer from cigarettes then they are worth it.”