FDA & E-Cigarettes

Major update!!!  Just recently, in January of 2010, there was a major win for e-cigarette manufacturers….

US District Judge Richard Leon barred the government from trying to regulate electronic cigarettes.

Excerpts from a recent press release are below….

“The FDA has been hounding the electronic cigarette industry all year, making false claims and promoting a smear campaign against e-cigarettes. They have released biased reports that are now being scrutinized and it has been discovered that electronic cigarettes are actually 1,400 times safer than regular cigarettes”, states Gina King of E-CigaretteDirect.com

Wow.  This certainly won’t be the end of this saga, but for now, this is a major victory for e-cigarette makers.

Electronic cigarettes, or “e-cigs” have been under fire from the FDA since 2008.

2008 marked the first time the FDA started to prevent e-cigarettes from entering the United States. There have been a number of electronic cigarette shipments refused upon entering the USA, but this has still not stopped the sale and distribution of the E-cigarettes.

In March of 2009, Canada fully banned the use of these devices. The FDA has continued to issue warnings against the use of electronic cigarettes.

Several brands of electronic cigarettes make up today’s marketplace.  When it all boils down, all of the e-cigarette models are made of the same basic components and operate in the same general manner.  E-cigarettes are made of a rechargeable battery, circuitry, an atomizer and a mouthpiece.  The e-cigarette smoker inhales air through the mouthpiece and the air intake triggers the atomizer, which subsequently turns the nicotine and propylene glycol liquid into vapor. Since there is no flame in this entire process, many companies that manufacture electronic cigarettes do so with messages talking about how they are “safer” than conventional tobacco cigarettes. Opponents of e-cigarettes, such as the FDA, maintain that e-cigs are not safe because some models have been found to contain cancer causing carcinogens and toxins.

The FDA has released these findings without sufficient testing though and may mislead the public into thinking that the electronic cigarette is as, or more dangerous than regular tobacco cigarettes. Proponents of e-cigarettes include health professionals, and they are weighing in on the issues concerning this alternative to conventional cigarettes. For instance, Dr. Elizabeth Whelan, president of the American Council on Science and Health, called the FDA’s recent statements “distorted, incomplete and misleading.” And Dr. Joel Nitzkin, MD, MPH, DPA, FACPM, Chair, Tobacco Control Task Force, American Association of Public Health Physicians stated that “we have every reason to believe the hazard posed by electronic cigarettes would be much lower than 1% of that posed by tobacco cigarettes. The testing guidelines in the current tobacco act, which is circulating through Congress, would represent a ban on electronic cigarettes, yet if we get all tobacco smokers to switch from regular cigarettes to electronic cigarettes, we would eventually reduce the US death toll from more than 400,000 a year to less than 4,000, maybe as low as 400.” It may be important to note that both Dr. Whelan and Dr. Nitzkin are anti-smoking advocates.

Manufacturers and sellers of electronic cigarettes have not kept silent in the face of the litigation. In fact, the CEO of NJOY, Jack Leadbeater, said in a recent statement, “NJOY has been tested by an independent third-party laboratory. This testing, as well as our consultation with medical experts, gives us confidence that our products are appropriate alternatives for traditional cigarettes for the committed smoker. We are therefore surprised the FDA’s testing has resulted in the agency suggesting that our products represent a health risk on par with conventional cigarettes. We will provide more information on NJOY’s testing and the results in the very near future.”

Traditional cigarette smokers will have to continue waiting to see what happens in the ongoing litigation between the FDA and sellers of E-cigarettes.  For now, many people, myself included, will happily smoke electronic cigarettes and wait to see what the future brings.