MEDICAL DEVICE OR CONSUMER PRODUCT?

摘要

Electronic cigarettes hit the headlines in July when a concerned member of the public travelling on a coach on the M6 toll motorway in the Midlands called police to say he had seen "smoke" issuing from a bag into which a fellow passenger had been pouring an unknown liquid.Fearing this was a terror incident, armed police stopped the coach, evacuated the passengers, and closed the motorway before finally declaring the bag and its contents-an e-cigarette and associated paraphernalia-harmless.It is taking the UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency rather longer to come to the same conclusion-or, rather, to determine whether the devices should be treated as medicinal products, regulated accordingly, and subject to MHRA medicines marketing authorisation.