CASAA Comment on FDA’s Proposed Regulation of Safety Packaging and Labeling for E-Cigarettes and Dissolvable Smokeless Tobacco
From: CASAA
To: U.S. Food and Drug Administration
From: Carl V Phillips, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer, The Consumer Advocates for Smoke-free Alternatives Association (CASAA) cphillips@casaa.org
27 September 2015
Comment Tracking Number: 1jz-8ld2-jrka
VIA REGULATIONS.GOV
Re: CASAA comments on ANPRM “Nicotine Exposure Warnings and Child-resistant Packaging for Liquid Nicotine, Nicotine- Containing E-Liquid(s), and Other Tobacco Products” (Docket No. FDA-2015-N-1514)
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Preemption
FDA labeling and packaging mandates should explicitly preempt state and local regulations. Federal regulations about packaging or labeling, including those imposed by FDA, almost always preempt state and local regulations, and do so for very good reasons. Whatever regulations are imposed at the federal level should be the right ones. If greater restrictions are legitimately warranted, they should be included at the federal level, and thus there should be no local discretion about them. State and local authorities do not possess expertise in these matters, and thus should not override FDA decisions. State and local actions in this arena tend to stem entirely from the whims of non-expert elected officials. Whatever one might say about such whims leading to, say, funding anti-use campaigns, this is clearly not a good way to make technical safety policy. Moreover, a patchwork of packaging and labeling requirements interferes (often intentionally and unconstitutionally) with interstate commerce. Among the benefits to consumers of the proposed rulemaking would be optimizing the packaging and labeling nationwide, thus avoiding this.
