New thinking in Australia

Electronic cigarettes are starting to garner support even in Australia where laws differ from state to state but where, in effect, the sale of e-liquids containing nicotine is either banned or heavily restricted.

According to a story by Sian Powell for The Australian, in Australia e-cigarettes are ‘winning major support from official and political organisations’, including the Liberal Party of Western Australia and the CSIRO’ [the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, an independent Australian federal government agency responsible for scientific research].

Elsewhere, the UK’s House of Commons Science and Technology Committee on e-cigarettes on Friday endorsed their use as a quit-smoking aid.

‘E-cigarettes present an opportunity to significantly accelerate already declining smoking rates, and thereby tackle one of the largest causes of death in the UK today,’ Powell said in quoting the report. ‘They are substantially less harmful – by around 95 percent – than conventional cigarettes.’

The UK report had recommended relaxing e-cigarette licensing and advertising regulations and potentially relaxing e-cigarette taxes and rules on their use in public places.