8 / 48
20
TOBACCO BUSINESS INTERNATIONAL
MARCH/APRIL 2015
(Connecticut), Sherrod Brown (Ohio)
and Dick Durbin (Illinois), sent a letter
to Dr. Hamburg on January 29, urging
the agency to finalize plans to
regulate
e-cigs by April 25
, a year after deeming
regulations on currently unregulated
tobacco products including e-cigs were
proposed.
…U.S. Representative Bill Posey
(R-Florida) on February 2 introduced a
bill to amend the Federal Food, Drug, and
Cosmetic Act to “
clarify the Food and
Drug Administration’s jurisdiction over
certain tobacco products
, and to protect
jobs and small businesses involved in the
sale, manufacturing and distribution of
traditional and premium cigars.” The bill,
which has 34 co-sponsors, was referred
to the House Energy and Commerce
Committee.
…A study led by Dr. Saul Shiffman
of Pinney Associates and the University
of Pittsburgh supported by NJOY and
published online in
Nicotine & Tobacco
Research
surveyed 216 nonsmoking
teens aged 13 to 17 and 432 adult
smokers of combustible cigarettes aged
19 to 80 about their interest in a range of
potential e-cig flavors, and found that the
teens showed minimal interest in the
e-cigs
(average interest level of 0.41 on
a scale of 0 to 10). The level of interest
did not vary across flavors, suggesting
that flavors “just didn’t seem to matter to
these nonsmoking teens,” while among
adult smokers, interest in e-cig flavors
was greatest (average 3.19) among recent
(past 30 days) e-cig users, followed by
past e-cig users (average 1.62), and
never users (average 1.08), with recent
e-cig users showing interest in flavors
like vanilla bean, double espresso and
raspberry, none of which appealed to
nonsmoking teens.
…Saying that “[w]hile e-cigarettes
may reduce smoking rates and attendant
adverse health risks, we will not know for
sure until these products are researched
and regulated,” the American Association
for Cancer Research (AACR) and the
American Society of Clinical Oncology
(ASCO) jointly issued a statement that
calls for
federal and state regulations
for e-cigs
and other electronic nicotine
delivery systems (ENDS) to ensure their
safety and minimize potential negative
consequences. The statement specifically
recommends: 1) additional research on
ENDS, including assessing their health
effects, if any, understanding patterns of
use, and determining what role ENDS
have in cessation; 2) FDA regulation on
ENDS that meets the statutory definition
of tobacco products; 3) a requirement
that ENDS manufacturers register with
FDAand report all ingredients and e-liquid
nicotine concentrations; 4) safety labels
on packaging and advertising, including
a warning about nicotine addiction;
5) a ban on all ENDS advertising and
marketing targeted at youth; 6) age and
ID verification for all online andmail-order
sellers of ENDS at the point of purchase
and delivery; 7) childproof caps on all
e-liquid containers; 8) a ban on ENDS
and e-liquids containing “child-friendly”
flavors; 9) ENDS bans in places where
the use of combustible tobacco products
is banned until the safety of ENDS vapor
is established; and 10) allocation of
funds generated through excise taxes on
tobacco products and potential taxes on
ENDS to be used for research on ENDS
and tobacco products.
…Commenting on
The Guardian
’s
report that e-cigs were the fastest-
growing item in terms of UK supermarket
sales in 2014, with sales growth of 49.5
percent across the largest grocers
“despite clamor from health groups to
ban the devices,” Professor Michael
Siegel said that data from Dr. Robert
West’s Smoking Toolkit Study in the
UK shows that
e-cig use among adults
in England
began rising dramatically
in 2012 and continued through 2014.
Correspondingly, the smoking cessation
rate rose from 6.1 percent in 2013 to 7.5
percent in 2014, after declining steadily to
4.6 percent in 2011. Siegel added that the
existing evidence suggests that e-cigs
are “producing substantial public health
benefits but causing very little in the way
of public health harms,” even though
UK policymakers wanted a virtual ban
on e-cigs and “antismoking groups are
doing everything they can to negate this
public health success story.”
…Li Baojiang, deputy director of
the Economic Research Institute at
China’s State Tobacco Monopoly
Administration
, said that the STMA is
considering expanding its regulatory
oversight to include e-cigs to improve
product quality and consistency, adding
that regulating e-cigs like tobacco
TMA REPORT
ON E-CIGARETTES AND
VAPING PRODUCTS…