FDA Lights Up "E-Cigarette" Ban Controversy

The American Spectator has a good roundup of all the recent legislative activity to extend tobacco regulations. Another regulation possibly on its way concerns a completely tobacco-less product: the so-called "electronic cigarettes."

I was not familiar with e-cigarettes, but the basic idea is this: it looks like a cigarette, delivers nicotine like a cigarette, and even puffs "smoke" like a cigarette (actually water vapor.) But an e-cigarette doesn't have any of the tobacco or additives of a cigarette. It's just  a battery-charged cartridge. That's why it's promoted as a safer alternative for people addicted to smoking.

But some people aren't comfortable with the idea of an alternative that is is still addictive. E-cigarettes currently exist in a legal gray zone--they have not been officially approved or banned by the FDA, but they are still commonly sold in the US. But the FDA has recently hinted that it will soon make a decision:

"We're concerned about the potential for addiction to and abuse of these products," says FDA spokeswoman Rita Chappelle. "Some people may mistakenly perceive these products to be safer alternatives to conventional tobacco use."

The agency has opened an investigation and has refused to allow e-cigarettes, e-cigars and e-pipes to cross the border because they're considered new drugs that require FDA approval.

What exactly is the "mistake" that consumers would be making to think that e-cigarettes are safer than normal cigarettes? While ingesting nicotine is not "safe" in an absolute sense, e-cigarettes are smokeless.

As mentioned in the NPR article, there is debate about whether or not the FDA has jurisdiction over e-cigarettes. There's a bill currently in Congress that would further complicate that debate.  The Family Smoking Prevention And Tobacco Control Act was passed by the House on April 2nd, and is now in the Senate. One of its provisions would allow the FDA "to review and consider the evidence for additional indications for nicotine replacement products."  That could be interpreted to allow e-cigarettes to fall under the FDA's jurisdiction.

Another unique thing about e-cigarettes is that unlike the tobacco industry, which is dominated by a few large corporations (Altria, which owns Philip Morris, produces half the cigarettes in the US), some smaller firms have been able to produce and market these devices.  One of those is Smart Fixx.  I should note that Smart Fixx says on its website that the FDA has declared it has "no interest" in regulating Smart Fixx's products, but it is not clear if that was written before the current controversy.

It should come as no surprise that Philip Morris firmly supports the Family Smoking Prevention And Tobacco Control Act. The bill would make producing tobacco products more expensive--and, as we've seen, maybe even endanger non-tobacco products.  The effect is to make life more difficult for Philip Morris's smaller competitors, because they cannot absorb the costs of regulation as well.