Everyone who opposes FDA's proposed e-cig ban should contact their US Rep urging them to oppose FDA's deeming reg (because it would ban >99.9% of e-cigs now on the market) and urge them to become a cosponsor of HR 2058.
Done:
Dear Rep. Long,
I write today to ask you to support H.R.2058 - FDA Deeming Authority Clarification Act of 2015 dealing with the "grandfather date" that is hard coded into the FSPTCA. This date, February 15, 2007, is the date the FSPTCA was enacted into law by Congress. The date is important since it is the date which beyond no new tobacco product could be marketed without going through extremely expensive (on the order of a million dollars per very specific product) new product approval or substantial equivalence. (This does not guarantee a product approval, it is the research and fees to submit for approval)
H.R. 2058 would make the "grandfather" date for any newly deemed tobacco products (deeming puts a product under FDA authority to regulate) the date the deeming becomes final, just as the hard coded date did with cigarettes. The FDA is in the process of deeming ecigarettes as a tobacco product. As it stands this hard coded date would make all ecigaretee products not on the market before the date subject to the expensive approval.
Congresses intent was to leave products on the market before the date of deeming available, however the hard coded date has (unforeseen at the time) dire impact on the ecigarette market. If the hard coded date is kept, then greater than 99% of all existing e-cigarette products will be effectively banned and the whole industry will be turned over to big tobacco since they are the only ones that can afford to put their products through the process.
Further exacerbating the issue is that big tobacco "cigalikes" are less effective at keeping people off cigarettes than the products that will be effectively banned. I myself smoked cigarettes for over 20 years and although I tried gums, lozenges, cold turkey, hypnosis, and Chantix (which I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy) I was unable to stop. I had resigned myself to smoking for whatever lifespan I had left. One day I tried a big tobacco "cigalike" but over the course of several weeks was back to smoking. I ran across someone using what is referred to as a "mod" which is a second generation ecigarette that has no resemblance to a cigarette and he conveyed to me that he had tried cigalikes with similar results but the mod had worked for him. I ordered one (there were no brick and mortar shops in Springfield at the time) and have not touched a cigarette in over over 2 years and have no urge to. I feel better, can breath better, taste food, and no longer smell like an ashtray. Am I less likely to die from the effects of ecigarettes than from combustible cigarettes? Research is pointing that direction, but that is not what this bill is concerned with. It is concerned with my personal liberty to choose to use second and third generation ecigarettes (which will be effectively banned) instead of smoking combustible cigarettes.
Please consider supporting H.R. 2058 and even co-sponsoring it. Do not let big tobacco win and take over the industry with their inferior cigalikes.