Deeming Regulations have been released!!!!

[Oliver]

You can download all 499 pages of the regulations here: https://s3.amazonaws.com/public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2016-10685.pdf

We liveblogged the reaction: Deeming Live blog | vaping.com

Clive Bates on Stanton Glantz and the junk science which got us here: Professor Glantz brings his anti-vaping crusade to Europe – I review his presentation

Here's the reaction from US vaping organisations:

SFATA:SFATA ISSUES STATEMENT ON FDA’S FINAL DEEMING RULE - SFATA | Smoke Free Alternatives Trade Association
VTA: (via Phil Busardo) - http://www.tasteyourjuice.com/wordpress/archives/12809
AVA: Not yet
TVECA: Not yet

And from ECITA, UK org: FDA ‘Deeming’ of e-cigs – designed to destroy? | ECITA - Electronic Cigarette Industry Trade Association

Individual commentors

Mike Siegel: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary: My Op-Ed in Wall Street Journal Points Out Folly of FDA E-Cigarette Deeming Regulations & The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary: FDA E-Cigarette Deeming Regulations are a Disaster for Public Health

Carl Phillips: Ecig deeming regulation — nothing new to see here

Rich Lowry: http://nypost.com/2016/05/09/uncle-sams-crackdown-on-e-cigs-will-make-it-harder-to-quit-smoking/

Sally Satel: What the US should learn from the UK's wisdom on e-cigarettes - AEI

Consumer organisations:

CASAA: CASAA: FDA Deeming Regulations: Release and Next Steps

Various articles
Washington Post: Why the FDA’s new e-cigarette regulations are a gift to Big Tobacco (and could actually harm public health)

Economics21: FDA’s New E-Cig Regs Will Kill

US News: What the E-Cigarette Black Market Will Look Like if FDA Stomps Industry

Reason: Government Officials Are Determined to Turn Vapers Into Scofflaws

PBS interview with Mitch Zeller: Skyrocketing teen use of e-cigarettes leads to new regulations

Clarityse: When two tribes go to war

Stock Transcript: The government crackdown is here: What the FDA regulations mean for e-cigarettes | Stock Transcript

Science Explorer: FDA Announces That E-Cigarette Products Will Now Be Regulated Like Regular Cigarettes

NYT Health: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/11/upshot/e-cigarettes-are-safer-but-not-exactly-safe.html

Weekly Standard: FDA Moves to Kill E-Cigarettes

Think tanks:

FEE: How the FDA Is Helping Big Tobacco and Encouraging Teen Smoking | Jonathan H. Adler

See also Sally Satel at AEI above
Videos

Brent Stafford (regulator watch): NO MORE CASUALTIES - VAPING BECOMES COLLATERAL DAMAGE IN WAR ON SMOKING - REG WATCH (E28) from Brent Stafford on Vimeo

 

[Oliver]

Apologies for not writing up an overview on where we're at. Need more time to digest.

HOWEVER (and similar to @phephner ner above) I'm also of the opinion that the game is now on...

AND I've just come off a call planning the most incredible event the e-cig world has ever seen - stay tuned

 

[pennysmalls]

No way is the vape industry going to just bend over for this. I see an all out war coming, I really do. Flat out non-compliance, blatant work arounds, black market, you name it.

 

[Kurt]

I don't want to clog this important thread with DIY stuff, but I thought I would jump in briefly for those wondering about how to store nic long term. My thoughts on this matter have changed a bit from what I "knew" years ago, but not much, and not in my methodology.

I have unthinned VG-nic in well-sealed glass in the freezer that is virtually unchanged after 6.75 years. In plastic, especially LDPE, it will oxidize, even in the freezer. Some PG-nics I've had in glass did oxidize in the freezer after about a year, some didn't. I don't vape PG-nic, nor have I had any for a few years, so I don't have more data on that, but it seems that the cleaner the nic, the longer it will freeze unchanged in PG. I think others here (Salem?) has found this too. Most nic today is very clean compared to 2009.

I don't have data on frozen ready-to-vape e-liquids with flavors, since I make my own fresh as I need them. I don't buy flavored e-liquids, and I only freeze unflavored VG-nic, mostly 100 mg/mL.

If you feel better by purging the headspace air with N2 or Ar to rid it of O2, ok. However, I think it is a negligible effect. 3 mL of headspace air at 25% O2 will give enough O2 to at most react with about 5 mg of nicotine. And that is only if it all reacts. VG naturally contains about 2 mg of O2 per liter, which if it all reacts will oxidize about 0.38 mg of nic...per liter of VG.

If the nic started out colorless before freezing, and it remains colorless, it has not oxidized. Nic-oxides are deep brown colored, and it takes barely any at all to yellow a nic solution. It takes considerable coloration before the original nic concentration is significantly impacted...although you may detect a tobacco taste and added TH. Testing is fine if you want to do that, but no color change means no oxidation. And kit titrations are really only accurate to about +/- 10%. 10% oxidation will be a very deep orange-brown. I used to test, I just use color now.

Cold slows all reactions down, frozen solid or not (VG does not freee entirely). This is a function of chemical kinetics and molecular dynamics...nic and O2 cannot move well in the thick glue-like liquid that VG turns into in at freezer temps, so they don't find each other as easily. And since the only real source of O2 that can impact nic is from the external environment, well-sealed glass takes care of that. Plastics tend to be rather O2-porous.

Yes, very cold VG will absorb water from the air, but again, this is a negligible effect. VG is too thick to syringe or work with very cold, anyway, so allowing it warm to room temp before opening is normal.

Making diluted unflavored nic with added water will introduce more O2, but probably very little. Viscosity is lower, however, so nic cycles to the surface more often...but again, if it is sealed in glass, I doubt the effect after a long time in the freezer will be noticeable. I don't do this, however, and I don't have concrete data on this.

Cold VG will expand when warmed, so I advocate a few mL of headspace. Let the bottle warm standing up...that air bubble will expand more than VG and can cause leaking under the cap if the bottle is on its side and in a warm environment.

I use SpecialtyBottle.com 50 mL Eurodropper amber bottles (Essential Oil Amber Dropper Bottles | Specialty Bottle). This is a company that makes glass for chemicals, so it is not cheap glass with many defects that can crack with temp change. I've never had a break, but I'm not saying it is impossible. Glass is glass. The dropper insert protects against spilling and allows syringe access to the liquid. Others use glass bottles with cone-caps for good sealing. They have blue and green glass as well. Dark is good, but it is UV that catalyzes oxidation most, not so much visible light, and freezers are dark. I have some of my nic in colorless glass bottles, and they have not changed in the freezer in the years I've had them, maybe 4 years...and even at room temp, oxidation is very very slow if in well sealed glass. A 50 mL bottle out for usage will last me months of mixing with very little change.

I have every reason to believe VG-nic will last essentially forever unchanged in the freezer and in glass. If 6.75 years shows no change, I don't see at all why it shouldn't last for decades.

 

[mpols]

U.S. doctors are so mean. I think I like UK doctors, better. But worse than being mean, I disapprove of their anti-science stance.

I am a chiropractor who doesn't vape or smoke. The Royal College of Physicians report is a major tool to change our minds. Personally my mind changed a week ago when a patient told me about it. I urge you to download and print the full report and give it to your doctors and health professionals, telling them your personal stories. Nicotine without smoke: Tobacco harm reduction

Cigarettes are killing 480,000 people in the US every year. That's the equivalent of two to three Boeing 747's going down every day. Vaping has the potential to reduce that by 95%.

People who vape are still a small segment of society. Non-vapors/smokers don't understand you. They are confused and think it's the same as smoking. At the same time most of them have loved ones that they care about who smokes. They know the dangers that smoking is doing to them. They are afraid and worried about their loved ones. Educating them on the RCP report and how this technology can add years to their loved ones lives is another tactic to change public opinion. Give these people the key recommendations for the report (linked above with the report) or a positive article on it.

ADMIN EDIT:
Here is the link, broken so it shows in this post since at this moment he has less than 5 posts (copy and paste, it will work):
https:// www. rcplondon. ac. uk/projects/outputs/nicotine-without-smoke-tobacco-harm-reduction-0

 

[bigdancehawk]

...


rage...

Our so-called representatives in government have no idea how enraged we are--or why. We were forced outside and away from others to shiver in the cold and freezing rain. We were forbidden to smoke in our own places of work. We were systematically isolated, condemned, humiliated, and demonized as a menace to bystanders and even to our own children. As the ANTZ put it, we were "denormalized" and "marginalized." We were taxed out the wazoo. Many of us spent a good deal of money on their approved cessation products which we found to be unpleasant, mostly ineffective and in some cases harmful to our mental well-being.

So the seed of our rage began to form.

And then at last we found a means to quit smoking--which is all they said they wanted. We did it because the free market and human ingenuity, unaided by government, devised and perfected a pleasant and relatively harmless alternative. We thought, "Now they'll stop marginalizing us and leave us alone." But no. Now they are attacking that alternative and threatening to all but destroy it, using the same tactics they employed so successfully against smoking and smokers, based on flawed, biased and misleading "studies," fear mongering, and a sick compulsion to regulate virtually every aspect of human behavior.

Over and over they have lied, abused the power entrusted to them, and betrayed us. They have forgotten that the primary function of the U.S. government is to protect and preserve our freedom, not to act as our parents.

So our rage reached a boiling point.

In all of this they have been aided by entrenched economic interests and uncritical media who have have failed in their essential role as the fourth branch of government--to keep a watchful eye, to inform the electorate when government abuses its power, and to expose its lies, thus further fueling our rage.

And we have failed too. Failed because we naively believed that good science, reason and logic would somehow prevail; failed because we believed that writing letters, sending emails and signing petitions would generate a change in policy, and failed because we and the vaping industry failed to organize, to join forces and to engage in the kind of all-out campaign necessary to defend our own interests.

 

[flavor911]

People bashing eliquid vendors for this reg are completely off base. I suppose everything should be free right? At what point are people allowed to make a profit without being scorned for it? If it's so cheap why don't you make your own eliquid? But wait....soon you won't be able to do that either.

So where does the real problem lie? The government is regulating to kill this industry so they can maintain their level of Tobacco taxes AND continue to reap the rewards from the Big Tobacco lobby. They also want those same rewards to continue to flow from Big Pharma who's patches and gums have taken a huge dump since ecigs came around.

The government could care less about your health. They could care less about your kids. They care only about money and that money is much more plentiful from Big T and Big P.

While we're on the topic of our fantastic FDA, I find it amazing that people wonder where the RX drug epidemic is coming from. We aren't allowed to advertise on TV but Big P is allowed to have a TV spot every 30 seconds for an RX drug. Do you not think that over time our children see these commercials and start to think that maybe RX drugs aren't real dangerous after all. They are on the nightly news and in the middle of the football game...hey why not!

FDA and our government are a complete sham. Put the blame where it belongs. THE PEOPLE came up with a solution to Tobacco and they just effectively killed it. Keep voting in the same ...... year after year and this is what you get.

 

[TheHook]

Hi Guys,

I have lurked here for a long time. Figured I'd come by and vent also.

I don't mix liquids, I have no clue how to make a mod. I'm just a simple girl who uses her vape pen and has been smoke free for two years now. I buy everything for vaping online from Halo. This whole situation disgusts me, I will never go back to real cigs, I plan on being at zero nic now within the next few months (I'm down to 3mg now) because I would rather die than ever smoke a real cig again. But there are millions out there like me, who will probably be forced back to cigarettes. Such a shame.

 

[Qew]

 

[bigdancehawk]

I'm gonna let the Senator know of my appreciation for his efforts.
Contact | Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee

Done.
Dear Sen. Johnson and honorable committee members:

I just wanted to express my deep and sincere appreciation to you for your request for information from the FDA on its deeming regulation as it affects e-cigarettes. Your letter reflected a great deal of insight into the devastating effects this regulation will surely have.

I smoked cigarettes for 44 years and tried just about every cessation method in the book (some of them multiple times) including Wellbutrin, hypnotism, patches, gum, cold turkey and motivational books. Nothing worked. Then about 4 years ago I discovered e-cigarettes. I haven't smoked a single cigarette since then and I don't miss them one bit. I no longer have a chronic cough, my breathing and stamina are greatly improved and I feel better than I have in years. My doctor says my lung capacity is that of a never-smoker.

I and all the vapers I know use advanced, third generation, devices. The technological advances have been amazing. I vape such flavors as banana nut muffin and breakfast blend (a coffee flavor). I purchase these flavors at a local shop where they're made under highly sanitary and controlled conditions. I know because I've toured their facility. As you know, the deeming regulation will wipe out the thousands of businesses like this, costing all of the employees their jobs and depriving the owners of their investment and means of livelihood.

Most of the innovative manufacturers in this country will be forced out of business, not to mention many innovators abroad. The entire market will be left to an oligopoly consisting of a few tobacco companies and maybe one or two of the largest international companies. The only approved products are likely to be cig-alikes--the cheap, ineffective devices sold in convenience stores. (I know they're ineffective because I tried them, along with many vapers I know.) For all practical purposes the FDA has said the most effective and advance products will be gone, and has already indicated that only "closed" systems are likely to gain approval--i.e., cig-alikes.

I have carefully stored all the nicotine I'm likely to ever need in my freezer and I have purchased a number of devices that will easily last me for the rest of my life. So I'm not worried for myself. Rather, I'm worried about the tens of millions of current and future cigarette smokers in this country who will be denied the opportunity to quit smoking the way I did. Many, many lives are at stake. It is on their behalf that I extend my heartfelt thanks to you for tackling this issue head on. If there is anything I can do to assist, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Disclosure: I am an ordinary citizen, a semi-retired lawyer. I have no stake or financial interest in any seller or manufacturer of e-cigarettes and I have never represented any of them. I am not a lobbyist and I have no financial ties to any tobacco or pharmaceutical company.

Respectfully yours,

 

[salemgold]

Another good read. Careful though. It could be a tear jerker. Was for me.



I don’t care about me.
I’m an eliquid manufacturer in the vapor industry. Well, I used to be, until today, when I became a tobacco product manufacturer in the tobacco industry.

I don’t care about me. I can stockpile enough eliquid of any flavor for myself and my wife and my friends and my family until we all die of old age. I have enough hardware to last decades, and the technical knowhow to fix any of it if it breaks.

I don’t care about me. I’ll be fine.

I do care about 9 million vapers though, and more importantly, 40 million at-risk smokers.

They won’t be fine.

In 90 days, all technological advancement in the industry will grind to a halt.

No new mods.
No new atomizers.
No new tanks.
No new flavors.
No new anything.

This could mean that the next big step in devices, that may make it even easier for a smoker to successfully quit, may not make it to market. That obscure flavor that a smoker has been looking for to finally make the switch stick, may not be available. These products may not make it to market due to the cost associated with doing so, a cost out of reach for everyone except Big Tobacco.

In 2009, FDA reported to Congress that they would examine the best way to regulate, promote, and encourage the development of “innovative products and treatments” to reduce harm associated with continued tobacco use.

The vapor industry did just that, all by ourselves.

We created, innovated, promoted, and self regulated a solution to the tobacco problem plaguing our country, and the world. Now that we have laid the groundwork, FDA is handing our industry over to an organization that kills 480,000 people each year in the USA alone.

Big Tobacco.

Big Tobacco is not the vapor industry.

The vapor industry is grassroots, built from the ground up by people who care and have passion for saving the lives of millions, and putting public health first. The vapor industry doesn’t make $90 billion dollars a year like Big Tobacco, so we can’t stay in and pay the cost of doing business.

So we will all go out of business, two to three years from now, because that is how our government works. This is a bailout of the tobacco industry to help them offset losses caused by decreased cigarette usage, and the rise of vaping.

These regulations wouldn’t affect me if the FDA-approved patches and gum actually worked back when I needed them to. I tried them on many occasions when attempting to quit my 31 year smoking habit. On March 29th 2014, I finally did quit when I bought my first e-cigarette. I wrote about that amazing day two years ago, here and here.

If the gum or patch had worked, as the manufacturer and FDA advertised it would, this would all be out of sight and out of mind, much like it is to the non-smokers and non-vapers in America. I would just be an ex-smoker, and this regulation wouldn’t directly affect me.

I’m glad that didn’t happen.

If it had, I wouldn’t have helped thousands of smokers and vapers.
I wouldn’t have met hundreds of wonderful people in our industry.

I would have far less people in my life I call friends and family.

We are now expected to believe that FDA-approved e-cigarettes manufactured by Big Tobacco will be effective at tobacco harm reduction, and will benefit public health.

They won’t.

We are expected to think this won’t affect 100,000 jobs at 20,000 businesses in America.

It will.

We are expected to sit by, and watch our industry die.

We won’t.

We are expected to sit by and watch Americans die.

We can’t.

If you don’t vape, don’t smoke, or never smoked, you may think this doesn’t affect you.

It does.

Look at your circle of friends, and your family. Do any of them smoke or vape? Do they know someone who does? Do you work with someone who does?

Most likely the answer is “Yes”.

Somewhere, someone you know, will die early from a tobacco related disease.

FDA approves it.

 

[kbeam418]

China will just call there mods "variable wattage" flashlights. The FDA just created a HUGE black market, do they think a billion dollar industry will just go belly up? They'll be an Al Capone of e-liquids and the corporations in China will be filing lawsuits. I myself will vape BECAUSE the FDA tells me not to.

 

[Oliver]

I'm not sure where I saw this, but Mitch Zeller was quoted stating that the RCP report does not apply to the United States due to skyrocketing youth e-cig usage (supposedly not seen in the UK).

While none of of us wish to see youths becoming nicotine dependent, this statement deserves very close scrutiny....

Certainly multiple studies have shown adolescents using vaping products, and this proportion has increased precisely as tobacco smoking goes down.

The CDC and FDA choose to state that, taken together, tobacco usage remains constant. However, the data sources are not equivalent - the question items used to analyse tobacco smoking ask specifically about daily usage, whereas the

Furthermore, a recent NIDA study shows that 60% of those adolescents are vaping zero nicotine liquids. These can only be considered tobacco products in a legalistic and tautological sense that the deeming regulation itself makes them so!

Accordingly, the real picture is likely to be that very few adolescents are daily-dependent users of vaping products who were previously tobacco-naive. At the same time, cigarette usage has (definitely) plummeted.

In other words, then, the likely story here is that far from being an entry into nicotine addiction, vaping products are associated with the greatest ever decline in youth smoking and that this relationship may well be causative.

The CDC/FDA (and the various health orgs) appear to refuse to countenance this possibility, even though it's a very real one, and very obvious to anyone with a modicum of critical thinking skills.

What's going on here?

 

[rosesense]

In case anyone missed this:

**HR 2058 - Cosponsors Added!**

Today, Representatives Cynthia Lummis (R-WY-At Large), Brad Ashford (D-NE-02), and Thomas MacArthur (R-NJ-03) added their names in support of HR 2058.

 

[Shawn Hoefer]

December 7, 1941 - a day that will live in infamy. Roughly 3000 sailors, soldiers, marines, and civilians were killed when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor.

Another day that will live in infamy? August 8, 2016. That's when the FDA implemented their over-reaching, unconstitutional Deeming Regulations on vapor products.

Many will be outraged by this comparison. I don't blame them. I'm having a rough time writing it. Please read on...

It is estimated, by one of the FDA's own reports, that vapor products could save the lives of 21% (or more) of current smokers, if given the opportunity to switch. It is further estimated that 1 in 5 Americans still smoke (20%). The current population of the US is roughly 319 million. 20% of 319 million is a bit over 63 million. 21% of 63 million is around 13 million.

13 million people that do not have to die of cancer and heart disease and COPD and emphysema.

13 MILLION people that FDA has condemned to a slow, miserable, painful, expensive death.

The FDA claims that they're doing it to save the children... to protect youth. Yet, youth smoking has plummeted! Even if this was not the case, the there are estimated to be 23 million youth (12-17) in the US. Of that 23 million, 7% are smoking. That's 1.6 million youth.

Yet the FDA is willing to throw 13 million Americans under the proverbial bus to potentially save 1.6 million youth. Simultaneously, they are removing one of the more effective cessation methods from the market, jeopardizing their chances of quitting in the future as well as avoiding much of the damage they might be inflicting on themselves, now.

How much damage? 95% according to the Royal College of Physicians. The very same agency that spoke up on the dangers of smoking years before the FDA got the message.

I'm not making any of this up. These are real facts and figures from real sources that any literate person with Internet access, and a calculator can put together.

Do your own research if you do not believe me... then call your representative and ask them to save the lives of more than 13000000 Americans - young and old - from a slow, painful, and apparently needless death. Tell them that they can do so by supporting HR2058 and the Cole-Bishop amendment.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Tapatalk

 

[JC Okie]

What a long, sad day. I'm from Oklahoma, Congressman Tom Cole turf, and I took a screen shot (literally snapped a picture of my TV screen -- Ha) of his reaction to all this mess.

 

[The Ocelot]

I just sent this to Avalon Television

I would like to see John Oliver do a program on the recently released FDA deeming regulations on tobacco products. “Deeming” as in under the guise of protecting public health (Save the Children!) they can deem anything they like to be a tobacco product, even if it doesn’t contain tobacco. It’s like deeming a glass an alcohol product because there is wine in it.

Four years ago I quit a 40-year smoking habit by vaping. I use a small battery powered personal vaporizer and tank to heat a propylene glycol and vegetable glycerin based liquid, mixed with small amounts of nicotine and food grade flavoring into a vapor and inhale it. Tobacco is not involved. Nicotine is not tobacco.

Nicotine is to tobacco like sugar is to several species of tall perennial true grasses of the genus Saccharum, tribe Andropogoneae, native to the warm temperate to tropical regions of South Asia and Melanesia. Or a Naturalamb condom is to a sheep.

The vaping device I use doesn’t look like a cigarette. It looks like a cross between a flashlight and a marital aid. Sadly, the US company that makes my device will have to go out of business since they can’t afford the estimated $1,000,000.00 it would cost to prove, amongst other things, that their battery powered flashlight/marital aid doesn’t endanger public health and will not entice non-battery powered flashlight/marital aid users to use one.

(Insert emoji of middle-aged woman slamming her head on a desk.)

An estimated $1,000,000.00 to prove that a non-smoker won’t use a device that helps people stop smoking? They also have to prove that a non-smoker, who uses a device that helps people stop smoking, won’t use it and then go on to start smoking cigarettes. It’s in the regs. (Links provided on request.)

The FDA has put a lot of effort into this surreal venture. The regulations grandfather in products on the market before 2007, which leaves traditional tobacco cigarettes untouched. The only companies with enough funds to file applications for new products have no reason to. When the alternatives are regulated out of existence they hope people will go back to smoking. Win-Cough-Win.

I think Mr. Oliver can have fun with this topic and hope he chooses to. It’s begging for satire, especially considering the elephant in their 499-page document. For some reason the FDA decided to call vaping devices Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS), when everyone knows they are Personal Electronic Nicotine Inhalation Systems.


ETA: Bolded for @crxess

 

[mpols]

I'm meeting with my Dem congresswoman's staffer in charge with healthcare policy next week. We need to put the pressure on the Democrats.

I live in Cleveland and my Rep is Marcia Fudge (D). I met with her local staffer on healthcare policy and her intern on Wednesday for about an hour. I gave them two copies of the RCP report "Nicotine Without Smoke" that I had printed and bound before hand. I also gave them many more articles and studies. The bad thing is that they were both completely ignorant about e-cigs and vapes, on what they were, how they worked, and that there were "vape shops". The good thing is that I did spend an hour with them. I presented the benefits of harm reduction, I introduced the objections that they would likely have as they learned more about the technology, and then I gave data to allay those fears before they even had them. By the end I think that I was able to convince both of them that vaping was benefit to society with little downside. I argued for vaping to be regulated separately from tobacco as well as argued for support for the Cole-Bishop amendment and HR 2058. Her job is to write a report and submit it to the Federal office. I will be following up with her. I wish that I had someone with me that vapes to give their story. If anyone lives in Marcia Fudge's district (Cleveland, OH), please pm me.

If you haven't called your representatives or senators yet, do so. If write a letter, hand deliver it. Try to speak to the staffers. If you live in a Dem stronghold, don't write them off yet. The science and data is out there. Assume that they are ignorant or misinformed rather than malevolent. It's been less than three months since I've gone from being suspicious (ignorant/misinformed) of vaping to becoming an active promoter for it.

 

[bcrook223]

I followed the links to send my local officials emails and such. I just got this response just now to my email:
ETA: I'm in North Carolina.
Dear Mrs. Crook:

Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts regarding H.R. 2058, the FDA Deeming Authority Clarification Act of 2015. I appreciate hearing from you.

As you know, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is expected to finalize regulations for electronic cigarettes in 2015. In a bizarre example of the Obama administration creating novel definitions to words with otherwise plain meaning, the FDA has decided to regulate electronic cigarettes as tobacco products even though electronic cigarettes do not contain tobacco. These regulations will apply to e-cigarettes released into the market after February 15, 2007. Since the majority of these products did not exist prior to this date, nearly all e-cigarette products will be affected by these new regulations coming out of FDA.

On April 28, 2015, Representative Tom Cole (R-OK) introduced H.R. 2058, which was referred to the House Energy and Commerce Committee before being referred to the Subcommittee on Health. If enacted, H.R. 2058 would prevent FDA from banning tobacco products that have been introduced to the market after 2007.

I understand your concerns with the Federal Drug Administration's regulation of electronic cigarettes and agree that e-cigarettes should not be subject to tobacco product regulations, since they are, in fact, products that contain exactly no tobacco.The out-of-control executive branch regulatory regime has hurt our economy, as evidenced by the unacceptable economic stagnation we have been experiencing for far too long. If H.R. 2058 comes before the Senate, I will support it.

Again, thank you for taking the time to contact me. It is important to hear from citizens on issues that affect the state and the nation. Please do not hesitate to get in touch with me again about other important issues.

Sincerely,

Thom Tillis
U.S. Senator

 

[Katya]

CASAA: FDA Deeming Regulations: Release and Next Steps

Per CASAA:

"The most important thing you can do is to make a call, write, or send an email to your Representative and urge them to cosponsor and support HR 2058. If there is one thing that has to be done, this is it. Encourage your family members, friends, everyone who has supported your journey to participate."