The US Food and Drug Administration has succeeded in laying down new, tighter regulations on e-cigarettes and similar devices, USA Today reports.
The regulations, which go into effect Monday, require all e-cigarette products that have been available since 2007 to undergo FDA approval. This means almost all e-cigarette products currently on the market must complete an application process to determine if they can continue selling.
Vaping companies will be able to keep selling for up to two years while new product applications are submitted, and one more year after while the FDA conducts its review.
Under the new regulations, e-cigarettes cannot be sold to people under 18 years old, and free samples to anyone are prohibited. Shops will have to ask for proper identification from customers who look younger than 27 years old. Vending machine sales of e-cigarettes are likewise banned unless they are located in adult-only facilities.
Also covered in the new laws are premium, hand-rolled cigars, hookah and pipe tobacco. Before this, there were no federal laws on the sales of e-cigarettes, hookah tobacco or cigars to minors, although almost all states already made it illegal.
E-cigarette proponents have launched a legal battle to halt the FDA’s move, and warn that the industry would decline if the regulations become fully implemented.
The rules, finalized in May, seemingly answers the concerns of anti-tobacco and anti-vaping groups that e-cigarettes are slowly becoming the gateway to cigarette smoking and tobacco products.
Statistics report that e-cigarette use has been steadily rising, especially among teenagers, as cigarette smoking has dropped. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, vaping among high school students increased from 1.5% in 2011 to 16% in 2015. Health officials estimate that some 3 million American middle and high school kids use e-cigarettes.
The American Lung Association lauded the move, saying that the regulations will prevent the youth from starting to use tobacco and will help better educate consumers on e-cigarette risks. “It will also prevent new tobacco products from being marketed unless a manufacturer demonstrates that the products meet certain public health standards,” the association said.
The e-cigarette industry is fighting back against the stricter laws. Their products, which don’t contain tobacco but do have nicotine, are being marketed as a healthier alternative to conventional smoking.
Nicopure Labs, one of the country’s leading e-cigarette manufacturers, a federal lawsuit in May in an attempt to cut off the FDA. The company says that the rules gave the industry a “disproportionate and unjustified regulator burden.”
The National Center for Public Policy Research and technology organization TechFreedom filed a brief supporting Nicopure, with the TechFreedom saying, “The FDA’s obsession with perfect safety will deny Americans what is obviously a safer technology for consuming nicotine.”
