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TOBACCO BUSINESS INTERNATIONAL
JULY/AUGUST 2015
“Welcome to the theater of the
absurd, where wrong is right and right
is wrong,” said Daniel Walsh, CEO of
Purebacco, addressing an audience of
vapor industry retailers, manufacturers
and researchers gathered to discuss
the sector’s future.
Like many in the industry—and at
the conference—Walsh is frustrated
by the threat that the wrong kind of
regulation will pose to a product that
he says “saved my life.”
It was a theme heard over and over
at the conference, which actually
featured a keynote by the FDA’s
Mitch Zeller, the man charged with
leading whatever direction the Center
for Tobacco Products takes on the
category. In his own presentation,
Zeller reiterated his central message
that FDA’s future action on vaping
industry regulation will be shaped
by the agency’s conclusions around
what will best reduce “net population
harm.” At issue, of course, is the fact
that the agency has struggled mightily
to get its arms around where various
nicotine-containing products fall
along what has widely been dubbed
the “continuum of risk.”
“Think of it as a combination of
assessing patterns of use, product
toxicity, and what is going on with
former smokers and never-users,”
said Zeller. “For example, are we
talking about currently addicted
smokers who would be able to
completely substitute the use of
noncombustible tobacco for the use
of combustible products? Or are we
talking about dual use and possibly
a diminished interest in quitting?
For former smokers, are we talking
about a resumption in [consumption]
of nicotine, or are they remaining
abstinent? Our job is to get a handle
on all those potential patterns of use
and then sort through the net impact
on population. ”
Zeller repeatedly expressed empathy
for the passion those in the vaping
industry have for their products, but
he also underscored the dilemma that
his agency faces. “To a person, the
story I hear is ‘I smoked for many
years and this is the only technology
that enabled me to stay away from
combustibles,’” he said. “But we
can’t make policy based on powerful
anecdotal reports; we need data.”
Revolution
to
Evolution
What’s in store for the vaping industry?
Mitch Zeller, director of the FDA’s Center
for Tobacco Products
ECigIntelligence’s Oliver Kershaw
with SFATA’s Cynthia Cabrera
Panelists Venable’s John G. Moore, SFATA’s Phil Daman,
National Center for Public Policy Research’s Jeff Stier
SFATA: