A federal appeals court sided with manufacturers of e-cigarettes in upholding a lower-court decision that the Food and Drug Administration lacks the authority to prohibit or regulate the fake smokes as drugs.
Instead, the U.S. Appeals Court in Washington ruled on Tuesday that the FDA must treat e-cigarettes as tobacco products, which means that the agency can restrict the marketing but not the sale of the products.
E-cigarettes are battery-powered, metal imitation cigarettes that do not contain tobacco, but produce a vapor that the user inhales. Many, though not all, of them are built to deliver a dose of nicotine to the user, and health experts and regulators have expressed concern that manufacturers are making unsubstantiated claims about the products’ safety.
“We’re thrilled,” Craig Weiss, president of the Scottsdale, Ariz.,-based e-cigarette maker NJOY, told Bloomberg. “Now we can continue to sell e-cigarettes under the regulations of the Tobacco Act.”
The original lawsuit against the FDA was filed by a competitor of NJOY, Smoking Everywhere Inc., in 2009. The FDA had seized e-cigarette imports, arguing that the products were essentially drugs or devices that required agency approval. But manufacturers argued successfully in court that their products, under federal law, are non-therapeutic alternatives to tobacco and thus should not be regulated as drugs.
Anti-smoking advocates reacted with dismay to the decision.
In an email statement, Matthew L. Myers, president of Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, said that the decision “is wrong on the law, wrong on the facts and fails to take into account the harmful implications of this decision for public health. This decision will allow any manufacturer to put any level of nicotine in any product and sell it to anybody, including children, with no government regulation or oversight at the present time.”
Myers also compared the looming e-cigarette market to the Wild West, and urged the government to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court.
Countries such as Canada and Brazil have banned e-cigarettes, and Oregon and California have recently taken action against companies marketing the products.
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The main problem is that they compete with Nicoderm and Chantix, thereby undermining the entire purpose of smoking bans, the bottom line of Pfizer.
i sell e cigs but i still dont and wont sell them to anyone under 18!! also i have alot of people that have actually told me that they dont smoke traditional cigs anymore thanks to my product!! the majoritiy that try it come back and tell me thank you!! some of them have been smoking for 20-40 years..
Here is the problem. This is a win for the manufacturer because they don’t have to go through all of the testing and proofs for a drug delivery system. That’s good because this is like saying soda is a caffeine delivery system. Here’s the bad part. Now that a federal court says that it is to regulated like tobacco products the backside to that is that it falls under all of the restrictions of tobbaco products. No smoking in schools, federal buildings or airplanes or trains or any other place that states “No smoking or SMOKELESS TOBACCO products”. The e-cigarette manufactures have fallen prey to losing one of their biggest selling point which is being able to use this in places where you can’t smoke. So now that you have to go outside in the heat and cold, does this still make sence?
I have been a smoker for 38 years and enjoyed it very much. I have tried quieting several times and it did not work. I tried the e-cigarette and liked it. I have not picked up the traditional cigarette since and I feel great.
I just cannot believe the tobacco Co is saying the e-cig is not good for you. Ok 12 members of my family have died of cancer, caused by smocking tobacco. It’s not like are government is trying to band tobacco sales, and how many people have died from it?????
Does the FDA consider caffeine a drug?????