Time to send it in folks!!!
CASAA: Fourth Call to to Action for FDA Proposed Regulations - Submit Comment
This is what I sent, I added another couple of paragraphs and some other changes:
From: My name
To: FDA Center for Tobacco Products
RE: FDA, Docket No. FDA-2014-N-0189, Regulatory Information Number (RIN) 0910- AG38
24 July 2014
I am a consumer of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes or e-cigs) and a member of the Consumer Advocates for Smoke-free Alternatives Association (CASAA). Like millions of others we are the primary stakeholders whom these regulations will affect. As written these regulations will hurt me, the person you are trying to protect. The regulations will hurt me financially as well as physically. The regulations will drive up the costs of equipment and liquid to the point where I could not afford to use electronic cigarettes any longer which would affect me physically by most likely driving me to smoking again.
The FDA exists to protect me the consumer, but these regulations appear to protect large corporations not the consumer. There appears to be no consideration of us consumers in these regulations. The impact statement only considers impact on industry and the effects on the consumer are ignored by the FDA and the so called public health community.
I am 58 years old and smoked for over 40 years until I discovered e-cigarettes last December. In the past I tried the FDA approved devices such as gum and patches, but they did not work for me. Yes they provided nicotine, but that is not the whole picture. That picture also includes the physical routine of picking up a cigarette inhaling and exhaling the smoke. Since I have started using e-cigarettes the cigarette has been replaced with my advanced personal vaporizer and smoke with vapor.
I started my journey using the devices the size of a cigarette. They were OK, but they were not going to replace a cigarette for me. The battery only lasted 1 to 2 hours before needing to be charged. The cartridge containing the liquid would last only a little longer and really did not taste good. If I continued to use the cigarette sized devices it would cost more than smoking a real cigarette. They did do one thing well, that was to get me to research more advanced devices. When I purchased my first advanced device I went from smoking one pack a day to four cigarettes a day. Within two weeks it was zero cigarettes. I have been tobacco free for 7 months now all thanks to advanced electronic cigarettes.
The flavors available are also one thing that keeps me using e-cigs. If I could only vape tobacco flavor or menthol flavor I would probably return to smoking. Flavors are not used to market to minors, adults like flavor believe it or not. Yes, I agree that e-cigs should not be sold to minors at all.
My health has improved since I started using e-cigs. I used to wheeze and cough a lot and my wife would worry about me. Since I have started using e-cigs my wheezing and coughing have stopped. I recently went to a doctor for a check-up and he told me my lungs sound normal. Before e-cigs I would actively seek out elevators even for one change in floors. I recently had to work at a place in Singapore, on a business trip, where the elevator was out of order and the office I needed to go to was on the fifth floor. If I was still smoking I am sure I would have had to stop many times in that climb, but I was able to climb those 80 stairs without problems.
If these regulations go into effect without changes I see three choices for myself: return to smoking cigarettes, stop vaping, or start making my own liquids. I don't want to start smoking again, but that may happen with these regulations. Stopping use of electronic cigarettes, this is an option but not likely in my case. The most likely option would be for me to make my own liquid. I will purchase the needed ingredients prior to the implementation of the regulations in large enough quantities to last several years. I have already started to purchase purely mechanical devices that do not require anything more than batteries, wicking material, and resistance wire. I feel that a lot of current vapers will choose this option. I guess that would make me a criminal for trying to stay off cigarettes.
My life and millions of others lives have become part of a political game and we are just pawns. The power brokers in the big companies, government, and un-caring activists are moving the pieces with no concern for "We the People". The problem is this is not supposed to be a game. We are talking about the health and well-being of millions of people here. Please do not send me and millions of others back to cigarettes or turn us into criminals for trying to stay off cigarettes!
