The federal government on Thursday announced sweeping new regulations for electronic cigarettes that could upend the multibillion-dollar industry and for the first time require e-cigarette makers to submit their products for a safety review.
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The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday released long-awaited rules that bring the burgeoning industry under federal oversight.
“California took a step backwards today by reclassifying vapor products as tobacco”, the Smoke-Free Alternatives Trade Association, which represents e-cigarette manufacturers and other vapor products, said in a statement, adding: “Stigmatizing vapor products, which contain no tobacco, and treating them the same as combustible tobacco while actively seeking to economically penalize smokers attempting to switch is counterproductive to public health”.
The new rule will require companies to show what is in their products, excluding those that have been on the market since before 2007.
Officials at the FDA and at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention worry that teenagers who otherwise never would have tried tobacco may experiment with e-cigarettes, get hooked on nicotine and move on to smoking.
“The FDA should immediately take action to address flavorings attractive to youth in all products and the egregious industry marketing practices”, Chris Hansen, president of the group, said in a statement. He urged the FDA to go even further in regulating the product.
“To exclude such a product from FDA regulation would be neglecting our duty to protect public health”.
The FDA said in 2014 that it would create rules whereby electronic cigarettes would have to pass a review to stay on the market.
Analysts at Wells Fargo & Co. and other researchers estimate the industry’s annual sales at $2.5 billion to $3.5 billion, and thousands of small “vape” shops have sprung up nationwide in recent years.
Cause nicotine poisoning from accidental ingestion, inhalation or absorption of the nicotine liquid in e-cigarettes.
Most companies will have to submit premarket applications that will undergo review to assess their impact on the “public health”. Though nicotine can be addictive, e-cigarettes lack the chemicals and tars of burning tobacco. But with no regulation, kids were getting their hands on e-cigarettes, and they became the first step towards smoking. However, there’s not much scientific evidence supporting those claims, though officials said they are working on that research. The feds would allow products to be sold for up to three years during that process, but it’s a process most small businesses can’t afford.
The FDA has stumbled before in its efforts to regulate the products.
For now, e-cigarette users may not see big changes.
“I’m afraid this could be the start of federal regulations piling up and that concerns me”, said Thang, 31, a longtime smoker who is hoping that e-cigarettes will help him quit.
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House Republicans have vowed to push back against the new rules, and the Chicago Tribune writes the reason for this is the group’s close relationship with the tobacco industry, which has already given millions to Congress members this election cycle.
