Manufacturers and distributors of e-cigarettes have refrained from stating that vaping can help one to stop smoking because such a claim would make the products to be regulated as a drug. However, evidence is emerging that vaping can indeed help individuals to quit smoking combustible cigarettes. Meanwhile, the medical community isn’t yet sure whether it should recommend e-cigs as a tool to help people to quit smoking. Could the reluctance of the major players in the vape industry be denying communities a vital cessation tool just because of fears about regulation? Stanton A. Glantz, PhD has submitted a comment to a steering committee of the FDA calling on the agency to develop investigational new drug applications (IND) aimed at testing whether e-cigs can help one to quit smoking and how that can happen. Such guidelines would help to address all the roadblocks which currently exist regarding such research. For example, academics who can conduct unbiased research often lack the finances to undertake such studies. Read the entire comment sent to the committee and find out whether or not it would help to end some of the polarity on the matter of what e-cigs can or cannot do.
Tag: Regulation
Should Vaping Be Taxed Like Tobacco Cigarettes?
The FDA calls electronic cigarettes “electronic nicotine delivery systems” (ENDS). To them, e-cigs are a tobacco product. Why should what they think matter? The European Union is taking steps to tax e-cigarettes in the same way that they tax tobacco products. The EU recently completed the process of receiving comments from the public about this matter. Several questions come to mind on the subject of taxing electronic cigarettes in the same way as combustible cigarettes. For example, taxes on traditional cigarettes are deliberately high in order to dissuade as many people as possible from taking up smoking. Are e-cigarettes equally dangerous to the point of deserving such “punitive” taxes? Whatever decision is taken in the EU is likely to have a bearing on what happens in the US and other jurisdictions. Read the full discussion on this debate and see whether the proposed taxes are justifiable or not.
Why Governments Should Give Vaping More Support
Public Health England (PHE) seems to be taking the lead when it comes to institutional and regulatory support for the use of electronic cigarettes as a way to reduce the harm that smokers face when they remain addicted to nicotine. The FDA doesn’t appear to be looking at this harm reduction angle when it seeks to regulate e-cigs in the same way as it regulates traditional cigarettes. Dr. Joe Kosterich writes a compelling article which shows that the authorities, such as the Australian government, aren’t being reasonable when they ban or severely restrict the use of e-cigarettes since they will, in effect, be telling smokers that it makes no sense to switch from one heavily restricted product (combustible cigarettes) to another heavily regulated product (e-cigs). Most studies on vaping agree e-cigarettes are 95% less harmful than combustible cigarettes. Should the health of existing smokers be left on the line just because “the long-term effects of vaping are unknown”? Read the entire article and come up with your own answers to that and other questions about the mixed messages coming from regulators.
New Oregon Law Raises Tobacco Use Age
An Oregon law that was signed last year took effect on 1st January, 2018 raising the minimum age at which people are allowed to buy any tobacco inhalant product, such as cigarettes and electronic cigarettes. The 34-page document now requires retailers to post notices stipulating that no one who is below 21-years of age is allowed to buy a tobacco product. Various institutions, such as schools, colleges/universities and correctional facilities must also post notices to that effect in addition to setting up policies and systems to enforce that restriction. This action by the state of Oregon increases the number of states that have taken such action to five. The measure now leaves vapers and smokers who were within the previous legal limit (18years and over) in a dilemma regarding how they will move forward.
Rising Cigarette Prices Cause Vaping Boom
The move by the FDA to adopt new strategies, such as raising tobacco cigarette prices and limiting nicotine levels, may have some support from what is happening in New Zealand after the excise duty on tobacco cigarettes was raised. Nicotine-containing e-liquids are illegal in that country. Consequently, the hike in cigarette prices caused more interest in nicotine-free e-cigarettes. Leading supermarkets have even added e-cigs to their shelves to meet this growing demand. US regulators can learn from these developments and go ahead with their plans to discourage people from smoking. The switch to vaping could have positive outcomes that exceed the projections of the regulators.
Authorities Need to Disseminate More Electronic Cigarette Information
Electronic cigarettes are relatively new on the market. Consequently, many people are still uncertain about whether these devices are helpful or not. Most information on the subject has largely been from the marketing efforts (online and offline) of those who manufacture or sell e-cigs. The lack of regulations governing the marketing of these products has left consumers to rely on any information availed by the suppliers/manufacturers of e-cigarettes. Some of that information may be incomplete or inaccurate, but the consumer has no way of telling the difference. A recent study has highlighted the need for authorities to come up with regulatory guidelines on the marketing of e-cigs so that public misinformation can be avoided. The researchers also recommend that governments take a more active role in educating consumers so that they can make informed choices about electronic cigarettes.
FDA Strategy Could Favor the Vaping Community
A new strategy that the FDA plans to implement in order to reduce that number of people who smoke could boost the electronic cigarette industry. The strategy will see the regulator set caps on how much nicotine tobacco cigarettes can contain. Nicotine levels will be reduced to amounts that are considered non-addictive. Smokers who need more nicotine will therefore have to get it from elsewhere, such as from electronic cigarettes. The rationale behind this strategy is that people die because of harmful substances, such as tar, after getting addicted to the nicotine contained in tobacco cigarettes. Getting a nicotine fix from a less harmful product would therefore yield significant public health benefits (reducing the number of tobacco-related deaths, for example). How the FDA responds to the vehement opposition to this strategy by the tobacco cigarette industry will reveal how committed they are to promoting less harmful alternatives.
3 Potential Problems With the FDA’s Planned Vaping Regulations
The US Food and Drug Administration made an announcement about how they intend to regulate the tobacco industry in the coming years. That policy direction also encompasses other related products, such as electronic cigarettes. Experts have raised a number of concerns about that policy direction with respect to electronic cigarettes.
First, the planned extension of a deadline to submit applications for existing e-cigarette products to August 8th, 2022 only applies to the products that are already on the US market. This limits the sale of new products that could be better and less harmful. Secondly, the planned regulations are likely to make it very difficult for small firms to bring to the market innovations that can improve the e-cig industry. Thirdly, the view that flavors can lure kids into vaping has no scientific backing to it. It is therefore imperative that all concerned people voice their opinions on this matter when the FDA calls for contributions so that the resulting regulations don’t have unnecessary adverse effects on the e-cigarette industry that holds a lot of promise for people who want a safer alternative to tobacco cigarettes.
Electronic Cigarettes: Should The Term ENDS Be Dropped?
Regulators, such as the FDA, often refer to e-cigarettes as “ENDS” (Electronic Nicotine Delivery System). The implication of using that descriptive term is the indirect portrayal of the impression that electronic cigarettes are primarily used to deliver nicotine to the users of the devices. However, research has unearthed findings that bring into question the suitability of that descriptive term. Researchers discovered that about two-thirds of teenagers who vape use the devices to inhale flavors rather than nicotine. Could some of these outcomes also be present among adult vapers?
The name/label given to something can often have far-reaching results. For example, some policy leaders advocate for banning “ENDS” adverts or sales as a way to protect teens from nicotine exposure/addiction. Changing the label attached to these devices could trigger a more objective view that can result in the formulation of helpful policies, such as how quality issues can be addressed. Otherwise, electronic cigarettes may fall prey to the proverbial “give a dog a bad name and hang him” mentality.