Vaping business group welcomes new rules
The latest code drawn up by the Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland stipulates that e-cigarette advertising should not promote tobacco use or glamorise tobacco use.
Vape Business Ireland found that the code struck the right balance between protecting minors while ensuring adults had access to information about vaping products.
Last month, Public Health England, an agency of Britain’s department of health, backed the use of e-cigarettes because they were 95% safer than smoking tobacco.
“It is our hope that our department of health will take a similar balanced approach when legislating for vaping products later this year,” Vape Business Ireland stated.
The alliance said they wanted effective, evidence-based, and balanced regulation by the Government of vaping products.
“The manufacture, supply, distribution, and sale of vaping products must be regulated in a responsible manner while upholding the principles of consumer choice for adults, particularly for adult smokers who wish to find an alternative to tobacco products.”
The code, which comes into force in March, includes rules on gambling advertisements: They should not target children or imply gambling is a substitute for work or that it can be an escape from personal problems.
There are new rules on food advertising that brings the code into line with the EU regulation on nutrition and health that is mandatory and seeks to protect consumers from misleading or false claims. Restrictions on children’s advertising has been extended. Food companies cannot advertise promotional offers to preschool and primary school children, while promotional offers aimed at older children should not encourage excess consumption.
Advertisements for beauty products should not show non-users of a cosmetic product in a negative light while advertisements for medicines should not claim the effects are guaranteed.
The ASAI said the rules on health and beauty advertising were designed to ensure medicines, medical devices, treatments, health-related products, and beauty products received the necessary high level of scrutiny.
Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Alex White, commended the ASAI for seeking to champion the interests of the community in an ever more interconnected and fast-paced age.
ASAI chairman Sean O’Meara said the authority undertook the most transparent consultative process in their history before producing the new seventh edition of its code. “To ensure that the code will remain at all times credible and relevant, there will be regular inspection and appraisal of the code with an ongoing process of additions, amendments and strengthening, as required,” he said.
Last year the ASAI, which is funded by the advertising industry, received 1,384 complaints from the public and 92 were upheld, with advertisers told to withdraw or alter advertisements found to be in breach of the code. Almost two thirds (64%) of the complaints made were on the basis that an advertisement was misleading, while almost a quarter (24%) were because an advertisement was offensive.
Facial injuries
A man was reportedly left unable to eat solid foods after an e-cigarette exploded in his face — leaving a gaping hole in his mouth.
James Lauria, 23, from Cobb County, Georgia, was airlifted to hospital with
first-degree burns after the smoking device unexpectedly exploded.
Even after spending six weeks in intensive care, James is still unable to eat solid foods and speaks with a lisp after the device blew a huge hole in his mouth.
James also suffered burns to his hands and cornea, as well as a fractured neck and finger during the July 29 incident, which is currently being investigated.
