E-cigarettes may only be available in pharmacies

The sale of e-cigarettes could be confined to pharmacies if three EU states impose restrictions, while refillable nicotine cartridges could be banned completely in Ireland, under plans from EU states.

Countries including Ireland staged a major pushback against the tobacco industry, which had won over many in the European Parliament to weaken new rules on smoking.

There was a danger that the first attempt to regulate the booming e-cigarette industry, currently worth an estimated €2bn per annum, could fail as MEPs pushed for them to be freely available and contain much greater concentrations of nicotine than in single cigarettes.