Democratic Group Disappointed With FDA Proposal to Regulate E-Cigarettes

E-cigarette industry applauds the FDA announcement, while Democratic lawmakers express frustration that the proposed rules didn’t go far enough.

April 25, 2014

WASHINGTON – Senate and House Democrats want the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to take a harder look at electronic cigarettes, something that the agency’s proposed “deeming” rule would do in the future, Roll Call reports. Several Democratic leaders want stricter regulations sooner, rather than later, for e-cigs.

Just last week, Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin (D-IL) and House Energy and Commerce Ranking Member Henry Waxman (D-CA) blasted the e-cigarette industry’s marketing practices in a report. Also, the pair claimed that the FDA already had the authority to classify the electronic cigarettes as tobacco products.

“After years of waiting for the FDA to act, we are extremely disappointed by its failure to take comprehensive action to prevent e-cigarette companies from continuing to deploy marketing tactics aimed at luring children and teenagers into a candy-flavored nicotine addiction. Prohibiting sales of these products to minors is a positive step, but it isn’t enough,” read a statement released yesterday by Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Durbin, Edward Markey (D-MA), Jack Reed (D-RI) and Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), as well as Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-NJ). “As long as e-cigarette companies continue to take pages from Big Tobacco’s old and cynical marketing playbook, our children will remain vulnerable to the grave dangers of nicotine addiction.”

At the same time, industry groups have praised the FDA’s long-awaited move: “It will take some time to analyze the potential impact of these proposed rules in a meaningful way. However, it is our long-held position that common-sense regulation should restrict underage access while treating electronic cigarettes as a distinct new technology — one that is radically different from combustible cigarettes,” said Eric Criss, CEO and president of the Electronic Cigarette Industry Group.

Meanwhile, during a conference call with reporters on the proposed ruling, Mitch Zeller, director of the FDA Center for Tobacco Products, clarified that the labels for electronic cigarettes would only warn users of the potential for addiction because the devices contain nicotine.

In response to a question about Congress and public health organizations not satisfied with the deeming regulations, FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg replied, “There’s a sense of urgency to get a better understanding and more oversight of these products.” Right now, “the FDA has no authority to regulate these products, so it really is the Wild West. The deeming rule is a foundational step in our ability to more broadly regulate these products.”

Last month NACS has issued a statement of position that encourages stores selling e-cigarettes to adopt, as a best practice, a policy of treating these products as age restricted and subjecting them to the same age-verification procedures as those applicable to tobacco products.

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