48
TOBACCO BUSINESS INTERNATIONAL
JULY/AUGUST 2014
New E-Vapor Game in Play
is that “it’s more like a regular hammer,
but they’ve got a sledgehammer ready
in the garage.”
The sledgehammer he speaks of—and
why Williams classified the proposal as
“horrible,” has partly to do with the
fact that as of now, the regulations
would put at least 90 percent of
e-cigarette and vapor companies out
of business—the cost and man-hours
to provide FDA with the requested
product and ingredient application
information would be far out of the
realm of all but the largest companies
with the deepest pockets—mainly, the
Big Tobacco companies that are now
growing players in the e-cig arena.
And there are other grave concerns.
Cynthia Cabrera, executive director
of the Smoke-Free Alternatives
Trade Association (SFATA) doesn’t
believe that the deeming regulations
as they were initially put forth are
even appropriate for the e-cig/e-vapor
market at all.
“The Tobacco Control Act was
enacted to deal with health hazards
of tobacco; it is not applicable to vape
products,” she says. “So it doesn’t matter
whether we classify these products
as tobacco or not tobacco—the
framework isn’t applicable, it doesn’t
work. It was made for combustible
tobacco cigarettes.”
Calling All Comments
The crucial piece for addressing
these and all concerns regarding FDA’s
proposed regulations is the public
comment period, which originally
amounted to a 75-day period that
began ticking the day the proposal was
released on April 25, meaning that the
industry would have until July 9 to
comment. (At press time, it looked like
“It doesn’t matter
whether we classify
these products
as tobacco or not
tobacco—the
framework isn’t
applicable, it doesn’t
work. It was made
for combustible
tobacco cigarettes.”
