An e-mail from my mommy . . .

[mostlyclassics]

I got this today from my ever-so-far-left congresswoman:

Dear [mostlyclassics],

Thank you for contacting me to express your support for H.R. 2058, the FDA Deeming Authority Clarification Act of 2015. I appreciate hearing from you.

I understand that having access to e-cigarettes is important to many of my constituents and that e-cigarettes have helped many stop smoking traditional cigarettes. While I think it is important for those individuals to continue to have access to e-cigarettes, I think it is also important that we make sure that people are made aware of health risks associated with tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, and that we keep e-cigarettes out of the hands of young people.

According to the FDA, it lacks the authority to change the grandfather date for newly-deemed tobacco products. Therefore, Congress would have to act to change that date. I am open to a debate on the most appropriate grandfather date to ensure that we maintain access to e-cigarettes while protecting the public from products that are detrimental to public health. However, if we extend the grandfather, I believe it should be done with a date certain and a short delay. I have concerns about not having a fixed date that could allow all products on the market today to be grandfathered and therefore not subject to any FDA oversight for years to come. I am particularly concerned because there are some reports that e-cigarettes are substantially more dangerous than cigarettes. I am also concerned that manufacturers of these products are targeting young people, using many of the same techniques that are outlawed for use by cigarette manufacturers.

I think it is also important to note the ramifications of moving the grandfather date. Not only does moving back the grandfather date mean that existing products can continue to be marketed without concern to their effect on public health, including questions of whether they make it more likely for young people to start using tobacco products, but it means that any substantially equivalent product produced in the future would be able to enter the marketplace. That means that if certain designs or flavors are proven to target young people and result in more children using e-cigarettes, they could not be removed from the marketplace.

Under the current proposal, the FDA plans to take steps to ensure continued access to e-cigarettes as FDA conducts its premarket approval process. For example, the proposed rule recommends including a 24-month compliance period for manufacturers of existing products to meet the premarket approval requirement. That compliance period would minimize disruption and the loss of access to those products while the FDA conducts its review process. If finalized, that timeframe would allow the FDA to ensure consumers continue to have access to e-cigarettes while allowing the FDA to review products to ensure that products detrimental to public health are removed from the marketplace.

Again, thank you for contacting me about this issue. Please don't hesitate to let me know whenever I may be of any help to you.

Sincerely,
Jan Schakowsky

 

[r77r7r]

"If finalized, that timeframe would allow the FDA to ensure consumers continue to have access to e-cigarettes while allowing the FDA to review products to ensure that products detrimental to public health are removed from the marketplace."

What, like cigarettes, lol?

 

[Lannie]

Hey, at least yours READ your letter (or ones like it). Our Republican mommy here in SD just sent a robo-reply explaining how the deeming regs would save so many young people's lives. Nothing about the amendment, just a paragraph about how wonderful the FDA is for looking out for all our safety. She's a bought and paid for ..... for Big Tobacco. Sure didn't take long...

 

[pianoguy]

The whole concept of the grandfather date is mind-boggling. In terms of evolution of the product, it is like saying that all automobiles produced before, say, 1935, are perfectly safe for consumers, but anything manufactured after that must go through some onerous testing.

 

[WillyZee]

The whole concept of the grandfather date is mind-boggling. In terms of evolution of the product, it is like saying that all automobiles produced before, say, 1935, are perfectly safe for consumers, but anything manufactured after that must go through some onerous testing.

The grandfather date has one purpose only ... ban open tank vaping

 

[mostlyclassics]

Hey, at least yours READ your letter (or ones like it).

I doubt very much Rep. Jan Schakowsky actually read it, Lanny. She has grunts in her office whose sole purpose is to glance over emails and letters, then use a canned response. All congresscritters use a similar system.

 

[Lannie]

I doubt very much Rep. Jan Schakowsky actually read it, Lanny. She has grunts in her office whose sole purpose is to glance over emails and letters, then use a canned response. All congresscritters use a similar system.

Oh, I know, and ours never reads her own mail, either, but what I meant was it was a response appropriate to what you had sent. I sent (probably) essentially the same thing to our "mommy" and she sent (her AIDE sent) a canned response explaining what the benefits of the deeming regs were. That wasn't what I was writing about, so obviously it was never read. They just saw something regarding "vaping," and sent out the prepared response without READING what I (or anyone else) wrote. I always write, and I always get the same nonsensical, robo-responses back that have nothing to do with what I was writing about, no matter the subject. I finally wrote and told her that her mother should be ashamed of her, and she didn't see that one, either. I'm sure her aides got a good laugh out of it, though, before they deleted it. It makes me want to go to DC and grab them by the scruff of the neck and MAKE them listen. They're supposed to be representing US, not Big Tobacco, or Big Pharma, or Big Ag or any other Big corporation.

 

[AndriaD]

The response I got from the Congressman for my district actually seemed to indicate that he had read it; smoking is still a big damn deal in GA, and there probably isn't anyone here that hasn't been touched in some tragic way by the damage of smoking. He may have dictated the message to one of his flunkies, but he seemed to understand how valuable vaping is both for smokers wanting to get free, and for small business in this state, and is flatly against handing anything else over to the Feds to "regulate."

He's Rep. Rob Woodall -- R-GA

Andria

 

[Jman8]

Mommie dearest said:

I have concerns about not having a fixed date that could allow all products on the market today to be grandfathered and therefore not subject to any FDA oversight for years to come. I am particularly concerned because there are some reports that e-cigarettes are substantially more dangerous than cigarettes. I am also concerned that manufacturers of these products are targeting young people, using many of the same techniques that are outlawed for use by cigarette manufacturers.

IOW, I am ignorant of what this act entails. So, I'm just going to follow what my peeps tell me is the only way to understand the issue.
IOW, I am clueless when it comes to anti-smoking claims and believe anything they tell me.
IOW, I am normal adult engaging in adultism but masking that as well as everyone else cause I hate the fact that when I act young at heart, it shows up infinitely more wise than when I play the role of overseer of the people. Really, this has nothing to do with kids, but with my own understandings of what it means for anyone to be youthful.