New FDA Regs effectively ban 99.9% of all vapor products
"The Consumer Advocates for Smoke-free Alternatives Association (CASAA) is condemning the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) tobacco deeming regulations that will effectively ban 99.9% of the vapor products currently on the market.
CASAA is justifiably outraged that the FDA has opted to squander a monumental opportunity to greatly improve the health and well-being of the public. Moreover, the FDA has demonstrated a clear lack of regard for the most recent scientific evidence and advice from public health professionals that support the promotion of vapor products to smokers as an effective means to reduce the harms of smoking. FDA has turned its back on millions of smokers and their families with the finalization of these regulations."
Excerpts from a New York Times article from May 5, 2016 ...
"After years of debate .. the Food and Drug Administration issued sweeping new rules that for the first time extend federal regulatory authority to e-cigarettes". "The long-awaited regulations, 499 pages of them, shifted the terms of the public debate over e-cigarettes, putting the federal government’s heft behind a more restrictive approach to the devices."
"The rules, which take effect in 90 days, have broad implications for public health and the tobacco industry. They subject producers to federal regulation for the first time, requiring them to register with the F.D.A. and provide it with a detailed account of their products’ ingredients and their manufacturing processes. Producers will also have to apply to the F.D.A. for permission to sell their products. That includes vape shops that mix their own e-cigarette liquid.
“This is not regulation — it is prohibition,” the American Vaping Association, a trade group for the industry, said in a statement. It said that submitting an application to get a product approved would take more than 1,700 hours and cost more than $1 million."
This new FDA ruling is set to be published in the Federal Register on 05/10/2016 and available online at this link. Here is a direct link to the new 499 page document for those who want to wade through it.
We believe the FDA has greatly overstepped its bounds on this one folks. It remains to be seen how - and IF - the industry will survive this blow.
