August 8th, 2014
From: The Wall Street Journal/Opinion
By Michael B. Siegel
Fifty years after the Surgeon General’s landmark report on smoking and health, cigarettes remain the leading preventable cause of death in the U.S., and some 40 million Americans still smoke.
Enter the electronic cigarette, which has enormous potential to improve public health because many smokers can replace the deadly cigarettes that burn tobacco, producing tens of thousands of toxins, including more than 60 known human carcinogens. The e-cigarette is a battery-powered, smoke-free device that delivers nicotine vapor without most of the carcinogens produced by tobacco combustion. Yet it is feared and stigmatized by legislators and health officials, and may even be regulated out of existence.
July 31st, 2014
From: US News & World Report
By Gregory Conley
The Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Tobacco Products has two goals that seem to go hand-in-hand: Reduce tobacco use, and reduce the number of smoking-related diseases and deaths. If there was a product that was achieving both goals, why would the FDA take the nonsensical step of classifying it as a tobacco product?
It shouldn’t. Yet, that is exactly what the FDA is proposing to do.
July 22nd, 2014
From: AP via ABC News
By MICHAEL FELBERBAUM AP Tobacco Writer
The Food and Drug Administration can’t use an advisory panel’s 2011 report on menthol cigarettes because its members had conflicts of interest, a federal judge ruled Monday.
While the agency has since conducted an independent review on the public health impact of menthol cigarettes, the ruling could hinder the FDA’s ability to defend any future regulation of the minty smokes.
U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon in Washington ordered the FDA on Monday to reconstitute the tobacco panel and barred the agency from using its older report on menthol cigarettes.
July 17th, 2014
From: AL.com
By Lucy Berry
The American Vaping Association wants the Food and Drug Administration to allow more time for public comment on a federal proposal that would regulate electronic cigarettes.
The public comment period, which was originally scheduled to end July 9 but was extended to Aug. 8, allows U.S. residents to express their thoughts about an FDA proposal that would ban e-smokes for minors under 18, require warning labels and agency approval for new products, not allow the distribution of free samples and prohibit vending machine sales, unless they are in a facility that never admits youth.
July 10th, 2014
From: HNGN
By Julie S
The U.S Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is spending $270 million on e-cigarette-related research that aims to determine the risks associated with smoking, and will be used to draft rules for regulating the device.
The research will include assessing the risk of e-cigarettes by counting the number of puffs volunteers take, combing through Facebook posts to see how people are talking about the device, measuring minors’ level of influence based on promotions of the device, along with 45 other tests.
***
