Latest News From CASAA FDA Deeming Regulations of Vapor Products Moves Forward

[Compenstine]

 

 

FDA Deeming Regulations of Vapor Products Moves Forward

The planned “deeming regulation,” with which the FDA will assume regulatory authority over e-cigarettes, has finally started moving forward again. It is now under review at the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), the White House office that is tasked with making sure regulations create more benefits than costs. There is little doubt that the proposed regulation will eliminate the legal market for 99.99% -- perhaps even 100% -- of the products over which FDA asserts jurisdiction after a grace period. (The grace period in last year’s draft version of the regulation was two years.) There is an unconfirmed rumor that FDA will attempt to ban all non-tobacco flavors almost immediately.

 

CASAA is currently working on our presentation to OIRA at a meeting that is scheduled for December 15, 2015. This is a process in which we and other petitioners are required to provide analysis to OIRA without the benefit of seeing the exact current regulation. However, we have every reason to believe that it is, unfortunately, basically the same as the draft FDA published last year. As of now, it is our assessment that OIRA altering or rejecting this proposed regulation is the best hope of saving the diverse e-cigarette marketplace until Congress changes the law. (Please note that some have suggested that individual vapers try to schedule meetings with OIRA. We are not recommending this to our members. We are, however, asking consumers to submit their stories as part of CASAA’s Testimonials Project. We will be sharing those testimonials with OIRA at our meeting next month.)

 

You will find some of ongoing analysis of the current situation posted by CASAA's Chief Scientific Officer, Dr. Carl Phillips, on his antiTHRlies blog. Already posted are why this is not really regulation (but rather a ban pretending to be regulation) and why the history of FDA’s actions (and the US government more generally) related to low-risk smokeless tobacco suggest that FDA will not behave moderately or rationally once it has authority. If you want to read about the implications of FDA regulation in more depth, check out CASAA’s comment on the draft version of the regulation (pdf).

 

 

Watch For CASAA's Survey

We will be launching a survey of our members that will provide critical information we can present to OIRA. Please watch for the invitation to participate and then do so. This is an important survey that could make a real difference, but we will need members to participate!

[FXRich]

I guess I have to start stocking up on flavors now like I did with nic base. When is the government going to start to stay out of our lives. I would like for someone to show me where it says in the Constitution that the government can control our lives for us

[Compenstine]

I hate to say it, but those days are a matter of history now.

[Tam]

1 hour ago, FXRich said:

I guess I have to start stocking up on flavors now like I did with nic base. When is the government going to start to stay out of our lives. I would like for someone to show me where it says in the Constitution that the government can control our lives for us

Looks like the government is making a hail Mary with this one. They miss all the tax money they're not getting from lagging cigarette sales. If they regulate e-cig and juice sales to death, they hope to send all vapers back to smoking again. Ugh.

[Earthling789]

12 minutes ago, Tam said:

Looks like the government is making a hail Mary with this one. They miss all the tax money they're not getting from lagging cigarette sales. If they regulate e-cig and juice sales to death, they hope to send all vapers back to smoking again. Ugh.

You nailed it Tam... European governments are embracing vaping as a safer alternative, and the US Government can't let go of tobacco because of the tax dollars... and allowing vaping to be deemed as a tobacco product, they can force Big Tobacco to subsidize all vaping (in the future) the same as cigarette sales, all to bolster the taxes and subsidy checks from the Tobacco Settlements. 

The FDA regulations have nothing to do with "public health and safety", and everything to do with padding coffers with tax dollars and under-the-table payments from lobbyists

[Tam]

Got an email at work about a workshop being given by our health "specialists" and they're going to address tobacco and e-cigarettes. The bullshit propaganda and misinformation in their flier made me see red. I'm so tempted to go and educate them but then again, since it's at work, I can't go shooting off my mouth like I'd want.

[Tam]

32 minutes ago, Earthling789 said:

You nailed it Tam... European governments are embracing vaping as a safer alternative, and the US Government can't let go of tobacco because of the tax dollars... and allowing vaping to be deemed as a tobacco product, they can force Big Tobacco to subsidize all vaping (in the future) the same as cigarette sales, all to bolster the taxes and subsidy checks from the Tobacco Settlements. 

The FDA regulations have nothing to do with "public health and safety", and everything to do with padding coffers with tax dollars and under-the-table payments from lobbyists

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/26/cigarette-smoking-decline_n_6855468.html

An interesting article about how cigarette smoking is in decline. I particularly like the first several comments from readers... 

[Compenstine]

I just posted a comment to that.

@Patrick Meeks: Then maybe they (The FDA) should pass out free e-cigarettes in the name of harm reduction. Instead they want to kill the industry. Now there is a message sent on how much they care about "Harm Reduction."

Now this is just Funny! LMAO

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKXKzbcYOJk

[Earthling789]

19 minutes ago, Tam said:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/26/cigarette-smoking-decline_n_6855468.html

An interesting article about how cigarette smoking is in decline. I particularly like the first several comments from readers... 

The comments were great... 

While I don't fully agree with the article (it was heavily and horribly edited), it does bring about huge points on the "social aspect" of smoking.... advertising, location restrictions, making smoking no longer "cool"...  Disbanding the Tobacco Institute was a fantastic thing as it stopped a lot of the mis-information pushed out onto the public by Big Tobacco... now if they can only disband the FDA, EPA, and a few dozen other "institutes" that push all the junk-science regarding the environment and energy!!

Some people will smoke even if they are $20 a pack, until their dying breath... Raising prices (taxes) only serves the government to offset the declining sales to maintain tax levels year to year... your local politician WANTS you to smoke... they want SOMEONE to smoke, so they can get the tax revenue!  The poor are hardest hit with the increases, and die-hard smokers will pay for a pack regardless of the cost, even if they have to skim from their food budgets or not pay one of their bills.