Vapers Look To Trump To Save Industry From The ‘War On E-Cigarettes’
Experts in the electronic cigarette industry are appealing to President Donald Trump to kill a Food and Drug Administration rule threatening to wipe out a majority of vape business across the U.S.
The FDA passed a rule finalized in May forcing e-cigarette vendors to submit a pre-market tobacco application for each of their products for approval, a costly process most vape vendors cannot afford. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a report Dec. 8 shredding vaping as an unhealthy practice and warned they pose a significant risk to youth. Localities are following with legislation regulating vaping the same way as traditional cigarettes, some slapping the industry with taxes as high as 40 percent.
Industry experts are appealing to Trump to fight the policy direction on vaping, arguing they benefit public health and aid smokers who are quitting.
“There’s a national drumbeat against electronic cigarettes, and the CDC is the leading champion for this demonization of a useful product,” Dr. Edward Anselm, senior fellow at the R Street Institute, told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “There are many challenges associated with the CDC’s war on e-cigarettes, and I don’t think its wrong to talk about a war on e-cigarettes.”
Under the FDA rule, vendors and manufactures have until Aug. 8, 2018 to submit the applications for their products. Many are anticipating closure due to the application costs, which range from $100,000 to $400,000 dollars each. R Street Institute released a report of eight proposals Tuesday for the Trump administration to consider to reduce the harm of tobacco products and save the vaping industry.
Advocates of vaping argue the practice reduces harm for the user and eliminates the risks of second-hand smoke for people around them, something they say the government should promote, not limit. The United Kingdom actually promotes the sale of e-cigarettes as a health-conscious alternative to smoking. A study found nearly all of the 2.6 million e-cigarette users in the U.K. are former or current smokers — many of whom are using the device to quit.
The authors suggest the Trump administration seize the moment to draw stark differences between combustible cigarettes and e-cigarettes that health officials can use to guide tax and regulatory policy. A proper regulatory and tax structure will allow the government to place appropriate safety labels on vaping devices. They also argue standards must be set for manufacturing everything from the device to liquid nicotine, ensuring a safer consumer market for the products.
The industry will still face major opposition from health officials at the federal and state level, who argue the vapor exhaled by e-cigarette users is a threat to air quality and presents second-hand hazards to those exposed. Proponents of vaping argue critics are ignoring the positive impact the devices are having on public health.
>arguing they benefit public health and aid smokers who are quitting.
I’m usually very anti-regulation but this is such a complete lie at this point and they know it. They don’t care about helping people stop smoking, they care about helping people to START VAPING. And when you find out how unhealthy vaping actually is, it’s hard for you to take anyone seriously who says, with tears in their eyes, “vaping must be saved for the health of the people!” Give me a break.
Read the comments behind the studies, the people running the studies even say that they are taken out of context. To get the chemicals they are worried about you would have to vape at a temperature that would blister your mouth. Don’t like the studies from the U.S.? Read the ones from Europe! Give me a break! How much tobacco do you grow?