House Leaders Rush to Defend E-Cigarettes From Possible FDA Bans
Republicans call for change to FDA rules proposal on e-cigarettes.
Senate Democrats harried electronic cigarette companies throughout 2014, pushing hard for new rules and restrictions on the booming multibillion-dollar industry. Now,
congressional Republicans - fresh off a November election landslide - are standing up for e-cigarettes and pushing back on pending regulations critics fear may allow
administrative product bans.
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., wrote to Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell last week requesting a change to proposed Food and Drug Administration regulations that may be enacted soon.
The proposed rules, released in April by the FDA, an HHS division, would require e-cigarette manufacturers to win “premarket” approval for their products within two years or pull the items from the market.
The new tobacco product approval process would apply to e-cigarette products released after February 2007, the proposed rules say, meaning nearly all e-cigarettes currently on the market would undergo rigorous review.
“Most e-vapor products did not exist at that time,” the House Republicans wrote to Burwell. “FDA did not even consider e-vapor products to be tobacco products until 2011.”
The leaders wrote that “as a practical matter, many newly deemed products could be removed from the market” if the 2007 date is not changed.
The premarket approval process - pursuant to the Tobacco Control Act of 2009 - requires significant time and expense for companies, and a favorable FDA ruling is not guaranteed.
Conventional cigarettes, generally accepted as more hazardous to users’ health than e-cigarettes, were grandfathered into the regulatory framework and did not undergo premarket vetting.
Boehner, a well-known user of conventional cigarettes, and his colleagues said the proposed rules put e-cigarettes and some cigars at a disadvantage against older nicotine offerings such as cigarettes and loose tobacco.
