There has been much hoo haa about electronic cigarettes in the news lately, with the World Health Organization being the latest to speak out about stricter regulations on electronic cigarettes. As ever the United States are leading the way as the Food and Drug Administration in the States announce plans for their new regulations on electronic cigarettes. These have been formally commented on by tens of thousands of people and more than half of the States are looking to find additional marketing standards for what can be done. The FDA may be using a few different changes in the near future to make these regulations work as well as they are supposed to.
How Are These Regulations Going?
The new regulations that are being set up mainly include classing electronic cigarettes as “tobacco products”. Now the FDA class electronic cigarettes along with many of the other traditional products out there such as hookah products, dissolvable items and pipe tobacco as tobacco products. In addition, the FDA will have the full right to regulate any new tobacco products after they are invented.
The registration and approval process is going to be important to discover in these standards. The FDA is asking for all electronic cigarette companies to provide information on how they manufacture such items and what ingredients those companies use. In addition, places that build such devices will have to be monitored and inspected by FDA agents on a regular basis.
Also, there will be an over 18 age limit restriction on the sale of e cigarettes. This part of the regulation that has yet to pass but it is widely expected that it will.
More than seventy thousand formal comments were sent to the FDA over electronic cigarettes with the American Cancer Society and American Heart Association taking up most of them. Places that make e cigs have also expressed issues. The FDA is being asked to get stronger regulations going by the health care groups. Most e cigarette companies however want the regulations to be reduced, stating that these electronic products are much safer for people to use than traditional tobacco items.
What Next?
All comments have to be reviewed by the FDA before anything can go forward. The regulations will have to be adjusted with care and it may take months for this to work. It is widely believed that these new regulations are not going to be set up until 2015. The FDA is hoping to get these regulations ready by April 25 of that year; state attorneys are looking to get them published soon as well. This will be within a year of when the regulations were introduced.
We believe that E-Liquid and E-Cigarette’s should be regulated, but a sensible approach to these regulations should be taken. We all want to know what we’re vaping and we all want to know its safe, but if these strict regulations hinder innovation and limit sales this may inherit a stalemate and end up resulting in more people choosing to continue to smoke.
What are your thoughts? Are tighter regulations on electronic cigarettes the right thing to do? Or do you think by classing electronic cigarettes as tobacco it will just convince more people to continue smoking tobacco, which has been proved to be far more harmful than electronic cigarettes?
Your comments are welcome.
Author: Kevin Ewbank
Avid vaper & co-founder of SmokShop
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