A vaping industry group has asked the Senate Ethics Committee to investigate Illinois Senator Dick Durbin for violating Senate rules by attempting to improperly influence Food and Drug Administration scientific decisions about vaping products.
On Oct. 14, the American Vapor Manufacturers Association (AVM) delivered a letter to the chair and vice chair of the Senate Select Committee on Ethics, alleging that Durbin has pressured the FDA to ban all vaping products, even though he is aware the agency has a statutory mandate to individually review premarket tobacco applications (PMTAs) submitted for each product.
Citing Durbin’s history of hounding the FDA to ban and restrict vaping products in letters to the agency, Senate floor speeches, press releases, and private meetings, AVM says it believes the senator has attempted “to interfere with and influence the outcome of an ongoing executive branch agency review process in violation of Senate Ethics rules.”
Jim McDonald – Vaping360.com – 2022-10-17.