A federal budget has ordered the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) speed up the review of e-cigarettes currently being sold on the U.S. market. This ruling coincides with claims made by several public health groups that accused the FDA of neglecting its public duty of reviewing all U.S. vaping products by several years.
Last year, several groups including the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and the American Academy of Pediatrics filed a federal lawsuit in Maryland, questioning the lack of FDA oversight of the e-cigarettes being sold in the U.S. According to these groups, the lack of oversight has led to an increase in underage vaping by teenagers and puts an entire generation at risk of becoming addicted to nicotine.
U.S. Judge Paul Grimm agreed, going so far as to call the FDA delay in oversight “so extreme as to amount to an abdication of its statutory responsibilities.” To this, FDA spokesman Michael Felderbaum responded that the agency would continue to tackle the troubling epidemic of e-cigarette use among kids. The agency also has the option of appealing the decision.
