What’s behind the FDA regulation of E Cigarettes?

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has the responsibility of ensuring public health and safety by examining, regulating, and approving or disapproving the marketing and distribution of food, medicine, and other consumable products.

Recently, the FDA has attempted to impose regulations on e-cigarettes in the country by asking the cooperation of the Electronic Cigarette Association in ensuring that e-cigarettes comply with U.S. laws governing quality control and marketing of foods and drugs. The FDA has also proposed to classify e-cigarettes as a drug, which would make them more strictly regulated. However, this proposal was overruled last year by a federal court decision stating that e-cigarettes should instead be classified as a tobacco product.

Classifying e-cigarettes as a tobacco product rather than as a medical product has already created loopholes. With this classification, e-cigarettes will be regulated under the same rules as regular cigarettes and other tobacco products. In particular, e-cigarette manufacturers will be asked to provide the FDA with details of the ingredients they use for their products. E-cigarette manufacturers will also need to comply with other FDA standards required for firms in the tobacco industry, including pricing and advertising of the product.

But tobacco product regulations are not as stringent as medical product regulations. Although the FDA is given the authority to review e-cigarette products before they are sold in the market, it cannot require manufacturers to conduct clinical tests on animals and humans. Such clinical tests are required for drugs and medical products prior to their distribution in the marketplace. So while there will be some form of regulation on e-cigarettes, the FDA will still not have enough teeth to protect users from any possible side-effects.

E-cigarettes may also be able to bypass some regulations which otherwise relate to smoking cessation therapy methods and non-tobacco products containing nicotine (such as nicotine gum). And with less restrictions to face, e-cigarette manufacturers will be able to distribute and sell these products more easily, to the delight of their users.

Users argue that e-cigarettes are safer to use than real cigarettes because of the absence of harmful smoke. Further e-cigarettes do not produce enough second-hand smoke to cause health problems to nonsmokers.
Smokers who are interested in this product should learn about it and keep themselves informed about the latest medical tests. We from will post regualary about new insight here on our E Cigarette News Blog.