67 replies to this topic

[pillbox38]

Posted by doodlebug in MHRA, EU
Yesterday, representatives from ECITA met with enforcement officers from the UK National Measurement Office (NMO). Anita Tadd and Jaye Libeccio made us very welcome, and indicated their wish to work with us in helping ECITA members to achieve full compliance with the legal requirements concerning the safe sale and disposal/recycling of batteries.

They began by telling us about some of the problems they had been finding, and explained that electronic cigarettes are very high on their agenda at the moment. The NMO are examining ecigs with regard to batteries and RoHS as they do not consider that they are medicinal products and therefore do not qualify for exemption from these regulations.

In products they tested recently from an online vendor (not an ECITA member), the NMO found unacceptably high levels of lead in the solder used to connect the battery to the switching circuitry. Unfortunately, despite the best intentions of the vendor in question, the NMO told us they had “recently removed from the marketplace in excess of £10k stock value”. The vendor in question was also required to pay for the disposal costs of these items.

They told us that their superiors had instructed them to examine ecig traders with a view to taking legal action against non-compliant and potentially dangerous electrical products. They announced that since ECITA members were demonstrably striving for compliance, they were a low priority for NMO enforcement actions. They asked us to supply them with a list of our members, which we have done.

The NMO shared some of their other concerns with us. In particular, they seemed very worried about the fact that ecig batteries (on cigarette-style ecigs) are not removable from their steel casing. We were able to point out that there is a safety exemption in the legislation, and that ecig batteries have built-in safety circuitry which must not be removed for the lifetime of the product. Therefore, to remove the battery would be to disable the safety circuitry, and this is what the safety exemption is intended to cover. They agreed to take advice from their technical experts on this point, and asked us to supply them with some examples, which we shall.

They were also concerned about the legal requirements for the correct markings to be displayed on products. We showed them a draft copy of the Industry Standard of Excellence (ISE) guidebook, which itemises all the regulatory requirements drawn from the legislation which apply to ecigs. This includes details of the markings required to cover the batteries legislation, along with everything else.

The ISE is the foundation for the internal auditing programme we are engaged in. (This is why the blog has been somewhat quiet of late!) Every ECITA member is given a copy of the ISE, and we hope to achieve Board approval within the next couple of weeks. At that point, we shall be able to print sufficient copies to be able to supply them to Trading Standards Officers across the UK. We hope to be able to present the ISE to all the regional groups of Trading Standards Officers over the coming months, and shall make copies available to all other enforcement officers as necessary.

The NMO enforcement officers were reassured on seeing the draft copy of the ISE and hearing about the audit programme ECITA has established. They offered to attend a meeting of ECITA members, to be able to advise and provide assistance directly. We hope to be able to arrange this in the near future. The NMO are happy to assist vendors who engage with them to achieve compliance with the law, and at the end of the meeting, they reiterated their support for the ecig industry.

As we refine the ECITA programme, we have been delighted to see just how supportive enforcement officers are - of the Trade Association, and of the industry as a whole.
http://ukvapers.com/...urement-office/

[pillbox38]

The content of this post by you Katherine differs to the scare tactics you employed contacting myself and katherine welch, quoting prison sentences could be likely, fines of upto £100k.

I wont go in to further details but after talking as you know with the head of the NMOs compliance team, not jaye (he is making a trip to visit us in Lancashire on Wednesday) they are not happy with the message you are sending out to your none members.

As far as i am concerned ECITA is a joke and only feathers your own self interests. It carries zero weight as a relevant organisation and i cringe at some of the companies you count as your fully paid up kosher businesses.

Its laughable.

By the way what gives you the right to think you can audit companies???

Ego centricity running riot Katherine.


I will point Jaye towards this post which is now safely printed, to ask did he tell you that they had destroyed one companies stock. Also i suspect the NMO are involved after your visit, there is no great fight left here, MHRA was the end of it, this is a minnow in comparison.

Put your white charger down Katherine there is noone left to wave it at.

[pillbox38]

Thought your members all knew the script especially after an audit by your goodself.

A cursory glance at a company sanctioned video by an ECITA member

http://www.youtube.c...d&v=-Z3N1-bjWyM

Well done Katherine he bought his to quit Smoking.

Hosted on their Video Page

http://vapestick.co....garette-videos/



0 pillbox38, Today, 12:20 AM

Edited by pillbox38, 28 August 2011 - 11:45 PM.

[pillbox38]

The VAPESTICK® Group are founding members of ECITA – the UK’s trade association for the electronic industry. As such, we will always strictly adhere to the regulations and code of practice as laid down by ECITA, as well as all applicable laws. All VAPESTICK® products are ‘chip compliant’ and carry the required warnings in the required places. As an online affiliate of VAPESTICK® we expect you to also ensure you comply with all applicable rules.

VAPESTICK® products should never be marketed to or sold to anyone under the age of 18. Nicotine is classed as addictive and is highly toxic, particularly in contact with skin. VAPESTICK® products should always be kept out of the reach of children.

VAPESTICK® products should never be described as ‘quit smoking’ devices or as ‘healthier’ than smoking tobacco cigarettes. You can of course market the product as an ‘alternative to smoking’ which ‘avoids the smoking ban' and state that it ‘contains no tar, no smell, no ash, no second-hand smoke’ etc. If in any doubt, please check our website for disclaimers and phrasing. If we haven’t said something you’d like to, it’s a fair guess that its because we can’t, or we would have!

http://www.thevapestickgroup.co.uk/

PS This is not a pop at Vapestick i could not careless what they or any other company say. Its a pop at ECITA and its duplicity in telling me my companies would be to dangerous to join them.. Jesus wept you could not pay me to join.

Katherine get your audits up to scratch, isuggest you start on all 12 members websites there is a plethora of stuff your members (Fully signed off by you) should be pulled up on. Remember your 16 chapter ecita manual, their all meant to be compliant arent they?>>???

[Kate]

pillbox38, on 28 August 2011 - 11:26 PM, said:

Thought your members all knew the script especially after an audit by your goodself.

A cursory glance at a company sanctioned video by an ECITA member

http://www.youtube.c...3N1-bjWyM#at=36
Well done Katherine he bought his to quit Smoking.

Hosted on their Video Page

http://vapestick.co....garette-videos/
0 pillbox38, Today, 12:20 AM

These links don't work for me Jason, please could you repost them? Ta.

[pillbox38]

Thats the Above video Kate on this Page

http://vapestick.co....garette-videos/

[Dellboy]

Hey everyone slips up once in a while or misses something that they shouldn't.

Jason Cropper even slips up too.

and I quote, from Jason himself, complete with spelling mistake:

"Our aim at the The Electronic Cigsarette Company is to become the Market leader in providing affordable quality Electronic Cigarettes to smokers...You can use it to quit or Beat The Smoking Ban.."

Here's a link:

http://uk.linkedin.c...opper/9/2aa/27b

You should be ashamed of your self Jason selling E-cigs in order to quit.

[FlamingKaty]

Awww, naughty Dell .

[Dellboy]

FlamingKaty, on 29 August 2011 - 02:17 AM, said:

Awww, naughty Dell .

Well I learnt it all from you hehehehhe

[pillbox38]

You miss dell a very big difference, i will enlighten you


Im not a member of the fantastic ECITA, whose members are the creme de creme of the UK Electronic Smoking Worlds Merchants, these premier leaguers get the covetted seal and must have been auditted and have full compliance on all issues. Surely ECITA vets its members?

Does it not?

By the way Im allowed to have a 3 year old post on a not used linked in profile.

Reason????

Im not a member of any club , never have been , never will be, it serves me well, if its quit smoking and i feel like saying so i will

However FYI, all my sites have been trawled (over a three month period)by the FDA and not a thing on there now, is not sanctioned by them.But who cares, lets form meaningless organisations, i stay independent you all get your knickers in a knot.

Enjoy your clubs, groups, organisations. You must all feel the need to be led.cheers UK vapers.

Edited by pillbox38, 29 August 2011 - 03:54 AM.

[Dellboy]

pillbox38, on 29 August 2011 - 03:53 AM, said:

You miss dell a very big difference, i will enlighten you


Im not a member of the fantastic ECITA, whose members are the creme de creme of the UK Electronic Smoking Worlds Merchants, these premier leaguers get the covetted seal and must have been auditted and have full compliance on all issues. Surely ECITA vets its members?

Does it not?

By the way Im allowed to have a 3 year old post on a not used linked in profile.

Reason????

Im not a member of any club , never have been , never will be, it serves me well, if its quit smoking and i feel like saying so i will

However FYI, all my sites have been trawled (over a three month period)by the FDA and not a thing on there now, is not sanctioned by them.But who cares, lets form meaningless organisations, i stay independent you all get your knickers in a knot.

Enjoy your clubs, groups, organisations. You must all feel the need to be led.cheers UK vapers.

Sry but I just don't get it - going around promoting your products as a quit aid is just plain irresponsible.

If I was you I'd be thanking me for pointing this out and changing it quick smart.

I don't think it's fair for you to be slagging off ECITA, which does a lot of hard work for all of us vapers, and having a go at Kate ( a well respected member of this forum ) in this thread as some kind of public shaming exercise.

It's this kinda post that really does get you and your company a bad name.

[pillbox38]

Sry but I just don't get it - going around promoting your products as a quit aid is just plain irresponsible.

No you wouldnt, says it all then, maybe you should understand the industry better but your perspective is formed from incessantly posting on every thread on here.

A little too much to ask you know anything about the intricacies of running an electronic smoking business.


If I was you I'd be thanking me for pointing this out and changing it quick smart.

Your not me, and for that you and i both are grateful


I don't think it's fair for you to be slagging off ECITA, which does a lot of hard work for all of us vapers, and having a go at Kate ( a well respected member of this forum ) in this thread as some kind of public shaming exercise.

Through your myopic lens of this forum, you post opinion after opinion on electronic smoking. You know little about if ECITA is doing anything relevant, in fact what do you know thats relevant about this industry other than what you read and cast opinion on on here?

Exactly the reason you do not know or cannot understand the reason for this thread, stay on the outside Dell, too much work for you to really understand, easier to sit on here 24-7 posting junk.

It's this kinda post that really does get you and your company a bad name


My companies have a great name, not with the forum trolls on here, the UKV hierarchy if there is one, or should i say the couch potatoes whose lives purpose appears to be posting their worldly ecig opinions on here.

Only thing that really matters are the 150,000 and growing customers i serve, their loyalty and good opinion counts, YOURS means zerro absolutely nothing to me.
A fact the most complient businesses in the industry in the UK are mine, like it or not its true.

About time you understood this industry from its early days. But you cant because in its early days you no doubt were running around casting worthless opinions on other forums.

Edited by pillbox38, 29 August 2011 - 09:24 AM.

[prof beard]

Can I remind everyone that both Katherine and Jason are members of this forum. Whilst UKV hosts the ECITA blog there is no official link between ECITA and UKV and I dont want this discussion to turn into a UKV versus Jason thread. Both "sides" are entitled to present their points of view, but we WILL draw the line at personal attacks and some of the content above (including some from Jason) comes very close to that. Keep to the issues and actions and avoid the personalities please or I WILL moderate this thread.

[raizeel]

Im sorry dellboy but nitpicking at a spelling mistake and a 3 year old post is just dumb, i dont get why jason gets such a hard time on here sometimes, for me he has done more for vaping in this country than most, and if anything he should be thanked for his efforts, if it came down to a fight against any organisation against e smoking, i know who i would be backing.

[steffijade]

At the risk of butting in to thread that I'm not that knowledgable about, I would like to make one point if I could.

Not everyone who reads/posts here is 'anti Jason' or 'anti TW'. I got my first e-cig kit from TW.. not with the intentions of stopping smoking, but mainly as a means of getting around the smoking ban in pubs. After a few weeks, I realised that I was hardly smoking at all and preferred vaping so I ended up stopping smoking anyway. I did start smoking again, mainly because I found I was running out of battery charge or eliquid quite often.

I have started vaping again, this time with the actual intent of stopping smoking... not because of any claims made by any company that e-cigs are a quit aid, but because having done it once before, I know that I can do it again. There has been so much development in e-cig hardware in the past few years it's unlikely that I'll find myself running out of charge and don't have to carry a bag full of spares around with me. I think that some of these advancements can be attributed to vendors like TW (but not exclusively) being willing to take the risk investing in new products and giving them the chance to succeed or fail.

I have bought from TW recently and will do so in the future, regardless of membership of any 'official' organisation. I will continue to buy from other vendors too, regardless of membership of any 'official' organisation... the important thing from my point of view as a consumer, is to get good products and service.

As I've said, I first tried e-cigs because of TW and I'm grateful for that introduction to vaping, thanks Jason.


That's awl I have to say bout thayt.

[Dellboy]

raizeel, on 29 August 2011 - 09:43 AM, said:

Im sorry dellboy but nitpicking at a spelling mistake and a 3 year old post is just dumb,

I point out the spelling mistake so that others don't think it's mine ( after all the quote is part of my post )

This is not just a 3 year old post - The info on there may have been written 3 years ago - but this is a public profile on a major networking site, which is easily accessible to everyone on the net. It should be kept up to date or deleted. These are only my thoughts on the matter.

[pillbox38]

Dellboy i note you have no issue with your official ecig organisation not vetting its members? All you can focus on is an old linked in profile (from a none ECITA Member).


IT says a lot about a persons integrity if they appear only concerned with pretty irrelevant personal digs.

Would you not agree, that as a non member of the only official Ecig trade organisation, i should not be held to the same standards?

Or would it be fair to say that as far as you are concerned, as long as the members are not my companies you dont care how they represent themselves?

Holding silly resentments dellboy shows a real lack of class, you embarrass your self and not my credibility, but yours dwindles.

So i will assume you feel ECITA members need to have no minimum membership criterias?

Maybe anyone can join because ECITA needs its fees.

A trade organisation should be above recall in my opinion, i believe it has no credibility if it is not.

Edited by pillbox38, 29 August 2011 - 02:31 PM.

[Lyneside]

Wow.

I know next to nothing about what is going on here , but it has kept me in hysterics for the 5 minutes it took to read.



Oh and this ......is a white charger.



I find em hard to pick up at all let alone wave them at people

Quote

Put your white charger down Katherine there is noone left to wave it at.

[Dellboy]

I don't believe I have made any personal digs towards you Jason - maybe you should reread my posts again.


I have no resentments towards you either.


I believe the points I have made here are good and relevant ones and I won't be drawn into any personal slanging wars.


I am very pleased to see that you have done the responsible thing and removed your profile from "Linked in"

[justincase]

Jason...can i have dellboys free bottle of vapefest juice?, now you probably feel disinclined to allow him to have it.