Docket ID: FDA-2014-N-0189; RIN: 0910-AG38
Electronic cigarettes are not tobacco products and should not be treated as such. Deeming them as tobacco is a grave error with deadly consequences for more than 40 million American smokers who will be denied access to an alternative that is more than 1,000 times safer than combustible tobacco.
The proposed deeming regulations would remove more than 99% of electronic cigarette (ecig) products from the market and deliver the entire ecig business into the hands of Big Tobacco, doing more damage to public health than any cigarette company ever accomplished. This is because many of its premises are constructed on faulty assumptions (http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00204-013-1127-0), junk science (http://tobaccoanalysis.blogspot.com/2014/05/glantz-review-article-is-little-more.html), and unsubstantiated propaganda (http://tobaccoanalysis.blogspot.com/2014/03/new-study-on-electronic-cigarettes-by.html) from the tobacco control industry (TCI).
Research by tobacco control groups is fatally and irreparably conflicted by their interests in continued funding from the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement (TMSA) and Big Pharma. The rise of ecigs threatens both these sources of funding. Siegel (2014) has discussed the lobbying efforts of Big Pharma against ecigs, and warned that these financial conflicts of interests must be acknowledged by tobacco control groups. Big Pharma has also recently launched a public anti-vaping ad campaign (http://www.amazon.co.uk/b?node=4933990031). Government funding is also a conflict of interest, since they also have a vested interest in continued tobacco payments (http://spinfuel.com/tobacco-bonds-electronic-cigarettes/). In a recent presentation, Prof. Peter Hajek (University of London, UK) expanded on the conflicts and motives that taint and bias much of the messaging of TCI. In light of this evidence, all research from tobacco control groups concerning ecigs should be summarily dismissed and all future funding from FDA suspended pending comprehensive investigations for academic misconduct.
The FDA has a mandate and a moral obligation to protect public health by actively seeking and critically reviewing all the available evidence, as well as funding additional research that will further improve our understanding of ecigs. Researchers who are not conflicted by any current or previous association with tobacco control, Big Pharma, or Big Tobacco should be supported and encouraged to pursue these studies. Continued improvement and innovation of electronic cigarettes is in the interest of public health, not snubbing them by deeming as tobacco products.
Siegel (2014): http://tobaccoanalysis.blogspot.de/2014/06/its-official-big-pharma-is-lobbying.html
Peter Hajek presentation: http://gfn.net.co/downloads/2014/plenary1/peter hajek.pdf
Peter Hajek video: http://youtu.be/IvDIF9izuMI
Electronic cigarettes are not tobacco products and should not be treated as such. Deeming them as tobacco is a grave error with deadly consequences for more than 40 million American smokers who will be denied access to an alternative that is more than 1,000 times safer than combustible tobacco.
The proposed deeming regulations would remove more than 99% of electronic cigarette (ecig) products from the market and deliver the entire ecig business into the hands of Big Tobacco, doing more damage to public health than any cigarette company ever accomplished. This is because many of its premises are constructed on faulty assumptions (http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00204-013-1127-0), junk science (http://tobaccoanalysis.blogspot.com/2014/05/glantz-review-article-is-little-more.html), and unsubstantiated propaganda (http://tobaccoanalysis.blogspot.com/2014/03/new-study-on-electronic-cigarettes-by.html) from the tobacco control industry (TCI).
Research by tobacco control groups is fatally and irreparably conflicted by their interests in continued funding from the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement (TMSA) and Big Pharma. The rise of ecigs threatens both these sources of funding. Siegel (2014) has discussed the lobbying efforts of Big Pharma against ecigs, and warned that these financial conflicts of interests must be acknowledged by tobacco control groups. Big Pharma has also recently launched a public anti-vaping ad campaign (http://www.amazon.co.uk/b?node=4933990031). Government funding is also a conflict of interest, since they also have a vested interest in continued tobacco payments (http://spinfuel.com/tobacco-bonds-electronic-cigarettes/). In a recent presentation, Prof. Peter Hajek (University of London, UK) expanded on the conflicts and motives that taint and bias much of the messaging of TCI. In light of this evidence, all research from tobacco control groups concerning ecigs should be summarily dismissed and all future funding from FDA suspended pending comprehensive investigations for academic misconduct.
The FDA has a mandate and a moral obligation to protect public health by actively seeking and critically reviewing all the available evidence, as well as funding additional research that will further improve our understanding of ecigs. Researchers who are not conflicted by any current or previous association with tobacco control, Big Pharma, or Big Tobacco should be supported and encouraged to pursue these studies. Continued improvement and innovation of electronic cigarettes is in the interest of public health, not snubbing them by deeming as tobacco products.
Siegel (2014): http://tobaccoanalysis.blogspot.de/2014/06/its-official-big-pharma-is-lobbying.html
Peter Hajek presentation: http://gfn.net.co/downloads/2014/plenary1/peter hajek.pdf
Peter Hajek video: http://youtu.be/IvDIF9izuMI
