A Public Participation Forum for the FDA Center for Tobacco Products and its Federal Advisory Committee (TPSAC)

From: BigThink

by Orion Jones

A new analysis of thirteen scientific trials suggests that electronic cigarettes can help smokers reduce their amount of nicotine intake and even quit smoking all together.

E-cigarettes have only been in production since 2006, making the available scientific evidence about their effects still quite sparse, yet they appear less harmful than traditional cigarettes. And if they can help people who want to quit smoking, all the better.

When smoking traditional cigarettes made of cut tobacco leaves, paper, and a host of additives, a toxic chemical melange is created when these ingredients are burned and inhaled. But e-cigarettes work by mixing nicotine with glycerine and propylene glycol, two relatively benign chemicals, then heating the chemicals into a vapor that is inhaled.

From: Reason

Jacob Sullum

Survey results released last week indicate that use of electronic cigarettes by American teenagers continues to rise, even as their use of conventional cigarettes continues to fall. You might think these diverging trends would give pause to critics who worry that e-cigarettes are “reglamorizing” the old-fashioned, combustible kind. Yet opponents of vaping seem undeterred by reality’s failure to match their predictions. Longtime anti-smoking activist Stanton Glantz recently told USA Today “there’s no question that e-igarettes are a gateway to smoking.”

From: WWSB/ABC7

E-cigarettes appear to be less addictive than cigarettes in former smokers and this could help improve understanding of how various nicotine delivery devices lead to dependence, according to researchers. Although many regular users of e-cigarettes are trying to quit smoking, the Food and Drug Administration has not approved them for this use, and they cannot be marketed as a smoking cessation product.

The popularity of E-cigarettes, which typically deliver nicotine, propylene glycol, glycerin and flavorings through inhaled vapor, has increased in the past five years. There are currently more than 400 brands of “E-cigs” available. E-cigs contain far fewer cancer-causing and other toxic substances than cigarettes, however their long-term effects on health and nicotine dependence are unknown.

From: The Australian

Sean Parnell, Health Editor Brisbane

The Intergovernmental Committee on Drugs, which advises the nation’s health ministers, is hiring consultants to develop a discussion paper on the risks associated with the marketing and use of the electronic nicotine delivery systems.

The sale of e-cigarettes containing nicotine is prohibited under state and territory poisons laws and despite claims that  the devices might help reduce the smoking rate, they have never been properly examined by the Therapeutic Goods Adminis­tration, which regulates other nicotine replacement therapies.

From: FDA/Federal Register

SUMMARY: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Center for Tobacco Products, is establishing a public docket in conjunction with the first public workshop to gather scientific information about electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) as announced in Docket No. FDA-2014-N-0001-0079. Regardless of attendance at the public workshop, interested parties are invited to submit comments, supported by research and data, regarding electronic cigarettes and the public health.

DATES: Submit written or electronic comments by April 15, 2015.

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I. Background