Congress weighing stronger FDA rules on e-cigs

Kimberly Adams Aug 5, 2015
HTML EMBED:
COPY

Congress weighing stronger FDA rules on e-cigs

Kimberly Adams Aug 5, 2015
HTML EMBED:
COPY

A Department of Agriculture appropriations bill under consideration in Congress includes a special exemption from the Food and Drug Administration review for certain tobacco products, including electronic cigarettes. Congress, the FDA, and the courts have been debating for years just how “e-cigs” should be regulated.

The bill, as it currently stands, would limit the FDA’s ability to review certain tobacco products, including electronic cigarettes, before they hit the market.

Thomas Kiklas, co-founder of the Tobacco Vapor Electronic Cigarette Association, says granting the FDA such “pre-market review” authority over e-cigs would be useless, because there are already thousands of e-cig and “vaping” products on the market. He says not only would the influx of applications swamp the already-stretched FDA, but it might force e-cig companies to take their products off the market while they wait for approval.

While the federal government works out how it will handle e-cigs, several communities all over the country are moving ahead with their own policies.

“I think we could wait a long time for the federal government to decide,” says Esther Manheimer, mayor of Asheville, North Carolina, “but I think our community had already decided.”

Asheville’s city council voted earlier this year to ban e-cigs from public buildings, parks and buses. 

For those using e-cigs to help them quit traditional smoking, Manheimer suggests “they can try to quit smoking not in a park.”

Asheville parks join universities, restaurants and several other cities all over the country that have banned e-cigs. The federal government’s position is clearer in the Department of Transportation, which banned e-cigs on planes back in 2011.

There’s a lot happening in the world.  Through it all, Marketplace is here for you. 

You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible. 

Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.