Possible incomming Flavor Ban

[mikepetro]

Gotta love the blow-off response from my Senator to my letter regarding the flavor ban.

March 19, 2018
Mr. Michael Petro
Martinsville, VA

Dear Mr. Petro:

Thank you for contacting me about regulation of hookah tobacco, cigars, and electronic nicotine delivery systems, which include "e-cigarettes," vaporizers, and vape pens.

In 2016, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a final rule that grants the Administration the authority to regulate all tobacco products, including hookah tobacco, cigars, e-cigarettes, and vaporizers. Prior to the announcement of this rule, there was no federal law preventing the sale of these alternative tobacco products to those under the age of eighteen. In reaching this decision, the Center for Tobacco Products considered the scientific and public health case for whether to regulate e-cigarettes as part of its authority under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. The FDA noted that smoking is the top cause of preventable disease and death in the United States, resulting in 480,000 deaths each year. Decreased rates of traditional cigarette use among youth over the past ten years have been accompanied by significantly higher usage rates of e-cigarettes and other tobacco products. E-cigarette use among high school students has increased by over 900 percent since 2011, with the rate of use rising from 1.5 percent to 16 percent in 2015. Results from a joint study by the FDA and the National Institutes of Health showed that from 2013 to 2014, nearly 80 percent of youth tobacco users reported having used a flavored tobacco product within the past 30 days. The final rule seeks to address these trends through a number of provisions that are designed to restrict youth access to tobacco products, such as requiring age verification by photo ID and prohibiting the distribution of free samples. The FDA has made additional information regarding its regulations available on its website at http://www.fda.gov/TobaccoProducts/Labeling/RulesRegulationsGuidance/ucm394909.htm#rule

On February 16, 2017, Representatives Tom Cole and Sanford Bishop introduced the FDA Deeming Authority Clarification Act of 2017 (H.R. 1136). This legislation would amend the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to change the predicate date for newly deemed tobacco products, instate new licensing and advertising guidelines for vapor products, and require the FDA to develop product standards for vapor product batteries. The House has not yet considered this bill.

While adults may purchase nicotine products if they so choose, the FDA has a legal and public health obligation with respect to young people. I will be sure to keep your views in mind should the Senate consider legislation related to this issue.

Thank you again for contacting me.

Sincerely,

Tim Kaine

 

[stols001]

Yeah. I hate writing my legislators because of the responses they send me. LOL then they also have my email address, and can spam me (I am talking to YOU Jeff Flake). He's a lot more interested in me knowing HIS agenda, than in him knowing MY agenda, seemingly.

The good news is, that's not your senator writing you. That's some staffer in training and they tend to be smug. It is often an exercise in futility that I continue to engage in. Sadly.

Anna

 

[zoiDman]

Gotta love the blow-off response from my Senator my letter regarding the flavor ban.



View attachment 732111
March 19, 2018
Mr. Michael Petro
Martinsville, VA

Dear Mr. Petro:

Thank you for contacting me about regulation of hookah tobacco, cigars, and electronic nicotine delivery systems, which include "e-cigarettes," vaporizers, and vape pens.

In 2016, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a final rule that grants the Administration the authority to regulate all tobacco products, including hookah tobacco, cigars, e-cigarettes, and vaporizers. Prior to the announcement of this rule, there was no federal law preventing the sale of these alternative tobacco products to those under the age of eighteen. In reaching this decision, the Center for Tobacco Products considered the scientific and public health case for whether to regulate e-cigarettes as part of its authority under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. The FDA noted that smoking is the top cause of preventable disease and death in the United States, resulting in 480,000 deaths each year. Decreased rates of traditional cigarette use among youth over the past ten years have been accompanied by significantly higher usage rates of e-cigarettes and other tobacco products. E-cigarette use among high school students has increased by over 900 percent since 2011, with the rate of use rising from 1.5 percent to 16 percent in 2015. Results from a joint study by the FDA and the National Institutes of Health showed that from 2013 to 2014, nearly 80 percent of youth tobacco users reported having used a flavored tobacco product within the past 30 days. The final rule seeks to address these trends through a number of provisions that are designed to restrict youth access to tobacco products, such as requiring age verification by photo ID and prohibiting the distribution of free samples. The FDA has made additional information regarding its regulations available on its website at http://www.fda.gov/TobaccoProducts/Labeling/RulesRegulationsGuidance/ucm394909.htm#rule

On February 16, 2017, Representatives Tom Cole and Sanford Bishop introduced the FDA Deeming Authority Clarification Act of 2017 (H.R. 1136). This legislation would amend the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to change the predicate date for newly deemed tobacco products, instate new licensing and advertising guidelines for vapor products, and require the FDA to develop product standards for vapor product batteries. The House has not yet considered this bill.

While adults may purchase nicotine products if they so choose, the FDA has a legal and public health obligation with respect to young people. I will be sure to keep your views in mind should the Senate consider legislation related to this issue.

Thank you again for contacting me.

Sincerely,

View attachment 732109

Tim Kaine

That one is So Generic, I bet they send it to the Anti e-Cigarette people as well.

 

[mikepetro]

Its a "form letter" response to anyone writing about vaping. I wrote about "flavors" and they didnt even mention them in the letter.

And you gotta love

"Decreased rates of traditional cigarette use among youth over the past ten years have been accompanied by significantly higher usage rates of e-cigarettes"

Doh!!! gee, could there be a cause and effect there?

 

[Baditude]

That one is So Generic, I bet they send it to the Anti e-Cigarette people as well.

 

[Rossum]

They have standard, form-letter responses for pretty much any topic and they are generally written in such a way as to not express a position one way or another. Some low-level staffer checks what you're writing about and sends you back the canned response. It seems to happen every single time with national politicians.

 

[zoiDman]

Its a "form letter" response to anyone writing about vaping. I wrote about "flavors" and they didnt even mention them in the letter.

And you gotta love

"Decreased rates of traditional cigarette use among youth over the past ten years have been accompanied by significantly higher usage rates of e-cigarettes"

Doh!!! gee, could there be a cause and effect there?

Yep... Some Staffer just Selects it from a drop down Menu of Form Letters and La Vola, you have a response.

But what People Don't see is after Sending you your Form Letter, that Staffer also checked a box that said "Pro e-Cigarettes". And somewhere, in a Basement Datacenter, a Data Base column was incremented by 1.

It's that db that is Really the Important thing. Not the Letter.

 

[SUNSHINE69]

Scott Gottlieb Is Preparing Us For the Flavor Ban

Someone needs to stand up at one of the FDA's public meetings and point blank say:

Better yet go to the FDA site and post a comment about your personal feeling regarding flavors and how it benefited you personally. The more comments they get, well...the hope is that it makes a difference. And to the person that said we have a year so don't worry. Bad info. Worry worry worry. You can only comment until June 18th of this year. Go here: Regulations.gov then click on Regulation of Flavors in Tobacco Products then click comment now in top left corner.

 

[zoiDman]

Better yet go to the FDA site and post a comment about your personal feeling regarding flavors and how it benefited you personally. The more comments they get, well...the hope is that it makes a difference. And to the person that said we have a year so don't worry. Bad info. Worry worry worry. You can only comment until June 18th of this year. Go here: Regulations.gov then click on Regulation of Flavors in Tobacco Products then click comment now in top left corner.

For some Reason, it looks like your Links are Broken.

Here they are...

Regulation of Flavors in Tobacco Products

Proposed Rule Comment

 

[ScottP]

Better yet go to the FDA site and post a comment about your personal feeling regarding flavors and how it benefited you personally. The more comments they get, well...the hope is that it makes a difference. And to the person that said we have a year so don't worry. Bad info. Worry worry worry. You can only comment until June 18th of this year. Go here: Regulations.gov then click on Regulation of Flavors in Tobacco Products then click comment now in top left corner.

A couple of points. Standing up at a public meeting with media there and giving them a soundbite like that could potentially do way more than a million private comments ever could. Second once the link was posted, I did post a comment to them and copied it here. It was back on page 5 or 6 so I do get why you missed it.

Thanks @mikepetro for the link. Here is my contribution. I encourage EVERYONE to post a comment to the FDA.

****************************************************

First off, I would like to point out that regular combustible cigarettes only come in regular and menthol flavors but that has never stopped teens from picking up the smoking habit. So I am not sure why anyone would believe that banning flavors in electronic cigarettes will stop teens from using those either. Teens normally do things because they think "it's cool" or because their friends or parents do it. They have been educated, they know the risks and dangers of tobacco use. Bans, age restrictions, marketing and education has not stopped kids from smoking, drinking, or using drugs. The bottom line is, with teens, they are going to do what they want to do, and nothing you do will stop them if they are so inclined to do it. Speaking of alcohol, it comes bottled in all sorts of fruit and candy flavors which teens are more likely to use for "first experiences" yet no one seems to care about that. So I have a hard time believing this effort is really "for the children".

I am 44 years old and my wife is 37. We had both smoked for over 15 years and between us we have tried numerous ways to quit smoking. Including some infomercial pills, patches, gum, lozenges, Wellbutrine, Chantix, tobacco dip (Skoal), and Skoal brand Snus. The Skoal dip actually did sort of work for me, but that still has high risk of mouth and throat cancer so that wasn't a much better alternative. The lozenges also worked for me but they caused SEVERE abdominal cramps and ........ so I had to stop using them and went back to smoking.

We first switched to using electronic cigarettes in January of 2013. At first we tried the "tobacco" flavored electronic cigarettes thinking that would be closer to what we were used to, but to us those flavors were gross. "Tobacco flavored" electronic cigarettes do NOT taste like smoking, they taste like eating the raw tobacco and we just could not handle that. So next we tried Strawberry flavor, and that is what did the trick and allowed us to finally kick the combustible tobacco habit. Over the past 5 years we have tried numerous different flavors ranging from fruits, mints, and candy. My wife currently primarily vapes a Mandarin Orange flavor, and I primarily vape a Wintergreen flavor. So neither the wife nor I are smoking combustible cigarettes thanks primarily to these flavors.

I have mentioned the FDA's potential plans to ban flavors from electronic cigarettes with my wife, and we both agree that if left with a choice of vaping a "tobacco flavored" electronic cigarette or smoking, that we would both end up going back to smoking. Only with the reduced nicotine you are planning for combustible cigarettes, we would likely be smoking 2 or 3 times as many. Thus doubling or tripling the tar, carbon monoxide, and other carcinogens we would be getting. So in essence banning flavors would be a DEATH SENTENCE for both my wife and I as well as countless others I would imagine. We cannot seem to break the habit of combustible cigarettes any other way than with flavored electronic cigarettes.

To me you should be pushing everyone to the safer alternative of electronic cigarettes instead of restricting their creation, popularity, and use. Electronic cigarettes may not be 100% safe, (I keep reading that they are about 95% safer) but if they are even 50% safer, wouldn't it make more sense to get EVERY smoker, dipper, chewer to start using electronic cigarettes first, to put those harmful products out of business for good, and getting more concrete safety data, before considering restricting and demonizing electronic cigarettes?


Sincerely,
Scott P
Houston, TX

 

[Cas002]

The FDA regulates, that's what they do, often with good intentions but poor execution. I have been watching Scott Gottlieb interviews on TV for years - he is really smart and logical, and more importantly, he is not a politician. I suspect this won't be as bad as it could've been if we had another politician in that position instead of a highly-regarded physician. The sky isn't falling...not yet.

 

[zoiDman]

I think People should be asking what Alex Azar thinks about e-Cigarettes?

 

[ScottP]

I think People should be asking what Alex Azar thinks about e-Cigarettes?

Well unless he is 100% in support of vaping, then I hope that Trump keeps him so busy dealing with the ACA, that he doesn't even think about e-cigarettes.

 

[Peteg]

Scott Gottlieb Is Preparing Us For the Flavor Ban

Someone needs to stand up at one of the FDA's public meetings and point blank say:

"Banning flavors in cigarettes did not stop kids from smoking, banning flavors in vapor will not either. So lets all be clear what this is really about. YOU Mr. Gottlieb and your regulations are trying to force people to go back to smoking instead of vaping, in order to more easily collect tax revenue and you don't care who it kills. That essentially makes you a PAID ASSASSIN, willing to kill people to collect money, with regulation as your weapon of choice."

I'd love to see how he answers that.

Exactly right! Great post ScottP