On Thursday, officials from the US Food and Drug Administration announced a new ruling that extends the agency’s authority to all tobacco products including cigars, hookah, and e-cigarettes.
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Until today, there was no federal law prohibiting retailers from selling e-cigarettes, hookah tobacco, or cigars to youngsters.
In California, Democratic Governor Jerry Brown signed five bills to restrict the use of tobacco in various ways, including the regulation of e-cigarettes and the expansion of funds for funding the anti-smoking programmes.
E-cigarettes are battery-powered devices that turn nicotine into an inhalable liquid vapor. While County Executive Dan McCoy won’t comment on the law until legislators vote next week, he did release a statement in support of regulating e-cigarettes. The head of the Tobacco Vapor Electronic Cigarette Association called the FDA ruling unfortunate, saying it will force 9 million Americans back to tobacco cigarettes. The FDA will also review any new products before they hit the shelves. The FDA swooped in recently to keep the booming trend in check. “People who buy e-cigarettes and other tobacco products deserve to have the facts so that they can make informed decisions about their purchase”. The product will also no longer be sold to anyone under 18, and must include health warnings on packaging and advertisements.
In 2009, the FDA began focusing on e-cigarettes as the product began appearing in the US market. Except for Pennsylvania and MI, all other states already ban sales to minors, but federal officials can impose stiffer penalties and have more resources for enforcement.
“All of this is creating a new generation of Americans who are at risk of addiction”, Burwell warned.
E-cigarettes and cigars have been growing in popularity among teens, and the FDA has chose to ban sales of such products to anyone under 18, according to a Reuters report. But we don’t have FDA approval for these as cessation products. “We can not let the enormous progress that we have made toward a tobacco-free generation be undermined by products that impact health and economy in this way”, said Sylvia Burwell, the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.
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6 News spoke with Republican State Senator Rick Jones who says there’s a place in the state for e-cigarettes, but it’s not in the hands of MI children.
