22
TOBACCO BUSINESS
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014
harmful;” there is
little to no
evidence that e-cigs are used as a
gateway
to conventional cigarettes;
the
premarket
authorization
requirements in the FSPTCA should
not apply to e-cigs and e-liquids;
the grandfather date of February
15, 2007 in the FSPTCA should not
apply to e-cigs and other tobacco-
derived products, which were not
contemplated when Congress was
drafting the legislation; all e-cigs
and e-liquids currently on the
market should be allowed to remain
on the market without obtaining
premarket approval from the FDA;
and the deeming regulation should
allow for products already on the
market to smoothly transition to
fully regulated status, and should
create a reasonable premarket
authorization process for new
products that focuses on ingredient
and
manufacturing
process
disclosures to ensure purity and
safety.
…Wisconsin
Sen.
Glenn
Grothman (R-West Bend), who
has introduced a
bill that would
exempt e-cigs from
the state’s
2010 public smoking ban, said the
bill is intended to help smokers quit
regular cigarettes.
…Sheriff Millard Gustafson of
Gage County, Nebraska said that he
is seeking an
exemption for e-cigs
at the Gage County Detention
Center from the ban on tobacco
products on county property.
…In an op-ed to
The New York
Times
, New York State Department
of Health Commissioner Nira V.
Shah said that “much remains
unknown” about e-cigs, including
how smokers and ex-smokers
use the device and whether it will
reverse the recent decline in youth
smoking, and that “the lack of
science on critical questions should
be cause for
close regulation of
e-cigarettes
until these questions
are better answered, rather than
careless optimism with the lives of
our youth.”
…In a December 12 Picture of the
Week report, RBC Capital Markets
analysts reported that the increasing
consumer interest in
customizable
“vaporizers” and “vape shops”
are
becoming a rising risk for traditional
branded e-cigs, with Google
search interest in “electronic
cigarettes” having peaked in
February 2012 and January 2013,
while interest in “vapor shops” just
peaked in December, adding that
some reasons for the increasing
popularity of vaporizers are: 1. cost
efficiency, as e-liquids are cheaper
than cartomizers; 2. the ability to
customize e-liquids; 3. higher vapor
volume; 4. an easier pull or draw
for the consumer; and 5. a longer-
lasting battery.
…A bill introduced December
11 in the Wisconsin Senate would
specify that the term “smoking,” for
purposes of the
general ban against
smoking
in indoor places, does
not include holding, inhaling or
exhaling a vapor from an electronic
device that does not contain
tobacco, and would in effect allow
the use of e-cigs in places where
state law prohibits smoking.
…
The New York Times
’ “The
Opinion Pages” columnist Joe
Nocera writes that the e-cigarette
is
“the
first
harm-reduction
product to gain serious traction
among American smokers” and
should be regulated for what it
is—“
a pharmaceutical product that
delivers nicotine
, not a conduit
for tobacco poison”—with health
claims allowed so long as they are
backed up with real science.
…A
New York Times
op-ed by
Prof. Amy Fairchild and Associate
Prof. James Colgrove of Columbia
University Mailman School of Public
Health questions the New York City
Council’s efforts to
ban e-cig
use
in places where smoking is already
banned, and instead suggests that
the FDA regulate e-cigs as products
“sold or distributed for use to
reduce harm or the risk of tobacco-
related disease,” as “history
shows that harm reduction—the
doctrine that many risks cannot
be eradicated and that efforts
are best spent on minimizing
the resulting harm—has had an
important place in anti-smoking
efforts and suggests that regulation
is better than prohibition,” and that
it would be counterproductive to
force e-cigs out of sight if they can
even slightly reduce the number of
tobacco-related deaths.
…The U.S.
Food and Drug
Administration
announced
September 26 that its Center for
Tobacco Products (CTP) Office of
Science issued additional tobacco
product review decisions allowing
the sale and marketing of four new
products through the substantial
equivalence pathway: 1. Elements
Aficionado 1¼ roll-your-own papers
and tips by HBI International;
2. Elements Aficionado KS Slim
RYO papers and tips, also by
HBI International; 3. Top Regular
100mm RYO filtered cigarette tubes
by Republic Tobacco LP; and 4. Top
TMA REPORT
On the Fda…
