Over the past year, the Food and Drug Administration has taken an increasingly aggressive and anti-scientific approach to regulating electronic cigarettes, despite empirical evidence showing they are far safer than traditional combustible products.
The agency’s approach became very apparent when it ordered JUUL, a manufacturer of popular electronic cigarettes, to remove their products from the U.S. market on the grounds their application to sell their products “lacked sufficient evidence regarding the toxicological profile of the products to demonstrate that marketing of the products would be appropriate for the protection of the public health.”
Thankfully, the order was later placed on hold by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit after the D.C.-based company alleged the FDA had “overlooked more than 6,000 pages of data that the company had submitted to the FDA on the aerosols that users inhale.”
The agency’s attempt to ban JUUL from the U.S. market is another contour of a broader effort to limit consumer access to electronic cigarettes that have included bans on flavored products and slow approval. Unfortunately for American smokers, the FDA’s senseless war on electronic cigarettes will deny them access to a product that has routinely shown to be an effective smoking cessation device and a product that is significantly less dangerous than traditional combustible products.
In taking such a severe line against e-cigarettes, the agency is preventing itself from meeting its mission of protecting public health.
Edward Longe – ACI – 2022-07-11
Want More Investigative Content?
