FDA Getting Ready to Regulate E-Cigarettes

The proposed new rules do not cover candy cigarettes or candy-flavored e-cigarettes.

The Food and Drug Administration opened this proposed new rule to public comment on April 24, 2014. The agency specifically has requested public input on whether it should start regulating cigars, but will accept comments on any aspect of the implementation of this law for 75 days. (The comment period was later extended to August 8, 2014.) Comments received after that time will not affect the rollout of new rules, but may be considered in how they are implemented.

Don't be surprised, however, if manufacturers come out actually in favor of new regulations. Believing some regulation of e-cigarettes to be inevitable, most manufacturers are hoping that any regulations that are actually applied will be reasonable and based on science, rather than fear of unproven ill effects.

When the FDA announced its comments period for the new rule, President and CEO of e-cigarette manufacturer NJOY Craig Weiss issued a press release stating "By resisting calls to regulate ahead of – and indeed in opposition to – the science and data, today the FDA has brought NJOY a giant step closer to achieving its corporate mission of obsoleting cigarettes.” And Christian Berkey, CEO of cigarette liquid manufacturer Johnson Creek told Time Magazine, "“People worried the regulations would be unreasonable and onerous. What we are seeing is they are not.”

"I would say that there were certain people that went into this thinking the FDA would be a foe — an irrational, illogical opponent to these devices,” said Miguel Martin, president of Logic Premium Electronic cigarettes, another top e-cigarette manufacturer, to a reporter for Time Magazine, but “They’ve hit the ball right down the middle of the fairway. It is early, I might change opinion,but the original set up on the process seems extremely fair.”

US manufacturers of e-cigarettes and vaping supplies believe that the FDA is taking a business-friendly approach. And e-cigarettes are not a small business.

See Also: Teen Use of E-Cigarettes Doubles In US in Just One Year

The FDA is not proposing to ban advertising of electronic cigarettes, and it is not regulating Internet sales of the product. Candy flavors, obviously aimed at children, will not be regulated, and even if new regulations are applied, manufacturers and vendors of e-cigarettes and supplies will have two years to continue selling existing products without need of additional registration.

Still, the future of e-cigarettes is not absolutely certain. Which way you feel about the product, let the FDA know what your reasonable beliefs are for the way e-cigs should, or should not, be regulated. Americans have relatively little opportunity to influence the actions of the federal government. Here is one opportunity to make your voice count.