Covered are all products that meet the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act definition of tobacco products, including components and parts, making them subject to the agency's regulation. These include electronic nicotine-delivery systems, all cigars, pipe tobacco, and water pipes.
E-cigarettes are battery-powered devices that heat a liquid, usually containing nicotine mixed with the chemicals propylene glycol, glycerin and often flavorings, to create vapor that users can inhale. Formaldehyde byproducts can be formed during the e-cigarette vaping process. It's not known how these byproducts behave in the respiratory tract, but formaldehyde is a carcinogen.
Although e-cigarettes are advertised as a safer alternative to traditional smoking, regardless of how nicotine is delivered, it still substantially harms your blood vessels, heart, and lungs.
Current research is sparse on the full health effects of e-cigarettes — though many experts fear e-cigarettes may represent a gateway to the use of traditional cigarettes and other tobacco products. As a result, people may keep smoking conventional cigarettes rather than be encouraged to quit. Cigars, of course, are not exempt from negative health risks.
As FDA spokesman Michael Felberbaum recently said, "Large cigars can deliver as much as 10 times the nicotine, two times the tar and more than five times the carbon monoxide of a filtered cigarette."
To keep FDA regulations in perspective, it's important to remember that smoking is the leading cause of preventable disease and death in the United States.
During 2015, more than 264 billion cigarettes, 13 billion cigars, and 128 million pounds of smokeless tobacco were sold in the United States. According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, smoking is not devoid of cost. Smoking-related illnesses in the U.S. cost more than $300 billion a year — including nearly $170 billion for direct medical care for adults and more than $156 billion in lost productivity.
A 2014 study from New York University found that 50 percent of American adolescents are aware of e-cigarettes, and of these 13 percent had tried one, and 4 percent were regular users to some degree. The high rates of use of both e-cigarettes and conventional cigarettes among current e-cigarette users suggest that many are using them as a way to satisfy their nicotine in places where smoking is prohibited rather than as a means to quit smoking entirely. With such data in hand, if we are going to continue the quest to lower tobacco usage in adolescents, then we must curtail the use of e-cigarettes as well.
Before 1996, the FDA did not play a role in the regulation of tobacco products, which were instead controlled through state and congressional regulation. It was not until 1992, when the federal government required the states to set the minimum age to 18 in order to purchase tobacco products, that the FDA came to the fore. In 2009, the passage of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act gave the FDA the explicit authority to regulate the manufacture, distribution, and marketing of tobacco products to "protect public health."
Though the livelihood of small businesses may be at risk by these regulations, and I'm aware that small-cigar makers are clamoring, the FDA has recognized the increased costs of such tobacco regulations. The agency is taking steps to help businesses navigate the new process while continuing to protect the health and general welfare of the American public regarding the dangers of smoking.
Antonia C. Novello, M.D., was surgeon general of the United States from 1990 to 1993.
Resource : http://www.orlandosentinel.com/opinion/os-ed-fda-cut-through-smokeless-screen-front-burner-08172016-20160817-story.html
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