Letters: Why is FDA favoring real cigarettes over fake ones?

[corbe]

Letters: Why is FDA favoring real cigarettes over fake ones?

 By Michael Siegel - 03/28/17 06:32 PM EDT

he author is a professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences, Boston University School of Public Health

In his op-ed (“Congress, don’t help Big Tobacco peddle candy-flavored wares to kids,” March 26), Matthew Myers of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids argues that the current FDA regulations regarding electronic cigarettes do not impede the ability of companies to put truly safer products on the market to compete with conventional tobacco cigarettes.

But the opposite is true. By requiring every new product to submit burdensome and expensive applications, the regulations make it nearly impossible for companies to introduce new and safer vaping products into the market.

Each individual application is estimated to cost no less than a half-million dollars, and businesses must submit a separate application for every one of the flavors they manufacture. Thus, a company that makes 50 flavors would have to spend $25 million just to keep its products on the market. The only companies that can afford this are the tobacco companies and a small number of large electronic cigarette companies. The regulations as they now stand would decimate the electronic cigarette market. This would undoubtedly lead many vapers to return to smoking.
It is difficult to understand why an anti-smoking organization like the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids would want to help keep the cigarette market alive and well, protected from competition by what is a much safer product. But this is exactly what the FDA regulations currently do. Unlike e-cigarettes, real cigarettes do not have to submit any application to continue marketing disease and death.

Congress needs to act now to create a new and more sensible framework that regulates nicotine-containing products according to the degree of risk that they pose to the public.

H.R. 1156 is a step in the right direction because it at least equalizes the playing field between tobacco and electronic cigarettes. It also requires the FDA to set standards for battery safety. Nothing in the legislation inhibits the ability of FDA to promulgate regulations to protect the safety of consumers who use e-cigarettes. In fact, this bill forces the FDA to actually protect the public by setting safety standards, something it has failed to do in the seven years that e-cigarettes have been on the market.

Boston

http://thehill.com/opinion/letters/326215-letters-why-is-fda-favoring-real-cigarettes-over-fake-ones

[Victoria33]

@corbe

As soon as the government puts a "special" tax on e-cigs, they will be all for people using them.

[corbe]

   Follow the $$$$$, Lawyers and the Lobbyist.
   I've been on e-cigs for a couple of years now, still smoke the analogues to, this impacts me.
   Boehner was a chain Smoker and he didn't seem to give a $hit.
@Victoria33

[Victoria33]

   Follow the $$$$$, Lawyers and the Lobbyist.
   I've been on e-cigs for a couple of years now, still smoke the analogues to, this impacts me.
   Boehner was a chain Smoker and he didn't seem to give a $hit.
@Victoria33

@corbe

I use e-cigs too, the ones with the cartridges, not the ones with the liquid.

[corbe]

@corbe

I use e-cigs too, the ones with the cartridges, not the ones with the liquid.

   I live on the edge, I mix my own Juice, using as my base some Chinese stuff, probably Duck urine.

[Smokin Joe]

Congress needs to act now to create a new and more sensible framework that regulates nicotine-containing products according to the degree of risk that they pose to the public.

Watch how they word that. Table 1 from http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199308053290619
The Nicotine Content of Common Vegetables
N Engl J Med 1993; 329:437August 5, 1993



It is amazing what are nicotine-containing products, why we even call some of them "food".

[anubias]

   I live on the edge, I mix my own Juice, using as my base some Chinese stuff, probably Duck urine.

I mix my own as well.  When it comes to my nicotine, I am a prepper.  LOL  I have enough to last for the duration.

[Frank Cannon]

   I live on the edge, I mix my own Juice, using as my base some Chinese stuff, probably Duck urine.

Dude. You gotta live a little better than that. Don't you have a hipster Vape shop in your neighborhood? Just buy the juice like everyone else.

I gave up on the overpriced e-cigs a couple years ago. I got an Istick 30 watt with a Nautilus X tank.

[Hondo69]

I opened two ecig shops about 5 years ago.  Early on people would come in and hug me for changing their lives.  Today it seems like there's a shop on every corner.

We mix our own juices and have about 100 flavors.  To register each one with the FDA would cost several fortunes, somewhere in the ballpark of $50 million.   But that's just part of the story.

We sell 3 different bottle sizes and each size requires a separate FDA registration.  Plus, we offer 5 different nicotine strengths and here again each strength would need it's own registration.  The math gets a little mind blowing.

$50 million x 3 x 5 = 750 million

I take special care to ensure each product we sell is high quality.  Customers both appreciate and reward us for taking that special care and tell us we have the best juices in Austin.  But no good deed goes unpunished with the U.S. government.

----

Operation Choke Point has been in operation since 2013 with the stated intention of combating fraud and money laundering.  In reality it is nothing but raw abuse of power.  Perfectly legal businesses such as mine were placed on the list of "undesirables" and targeted for extinction by the Obama administration.  The reason - they just don't like us.

Here's how it works.  All banks are under FDIC control as well as Dodd/Frank.  And all credit card merchant accounts are underwritten by a bank somewhere in the U.S.  The Justice Department contacted these banks with the list of undesirable companies such as ecigs, firearms, payday loans, and dating services.  Overnight our credit card merchant accounts were yanked.  My ability to sell online or take credit cards in my stores came to a screeching halt.

Some business had their bank accounts closed and their outstanding loans called.  Did I mention these are all perfectly legal businesses?

Rep. Sean Duffy (R-WI), a congressional opponent of Operation Choke Point, states, “This is the greatest abuse of power that no one is talking about. You’ve got vigilante bureaucrats taking down lawful businesses without any due process simply because they don’t like them."

-----

Ever seen those nasty little egics for sale in convenience stores?  They are low quality, overpriced, and just happen to be owned by big tobacco companies.

Want to take a guess which products are exempt from the new FDA regulations?  Follow the money.

[anubias]

I hear you @Hondo69 .  The only companies that will be left standing selling ecigs will be Big Tobacco.  Thus the reason I purchased tons of liquid nicotine. 

[Hondo69]

I hear you @Hondo69 .  The only companies that will be left standing selling ecigs will be Big Tobacco.  Thus the reason I purchased tons of liquid nicotine.

You ought to read the new regulations.  I guarantee big tobacco wrote ever single word.

[Idaho_Cowboy]

Watch how they word that. Table 1 from http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199308053290619
The Nicotine Content of Common Vegetables
N Engl J Med 1993; 329:437August 5, 1993



It is amazing what are nicotine-containing products, why we even call some of them "food".

This may explain my potato addiction.  ^-^

[catfish1957]

Anyone else my age remember those chalky tasty candy cigarettes we used to get as a kid?

I liked them.

[Smokin Joe]

Anyone else my age remember those chalky tasty candy cigarettes we used to get as a kid?

I liked them.

I remember those! Bubble gum cigars, too!

[anubias]

You ought to read the new regulations.  I guarantee big tobacco wrote ever single word.

Without a doubt.  Also the reason we didn't open a store.  One of my kids wanted to run one several years ago, but after realizing where this was headed, I passed on it.  I didn't think they'd still be open as long as they have.  The pols are going to get their taxes from us and their money from Big Tobacco by hook or by crook.

[anubias]

Anyone else my age remember those chalky tasty candy cigarettes we used to get as a kid?

I liked them.

They were my favorite.  I also enjoyed the bubble gum cigars.

[Hondo69]

One day the brain trust at Harvard decided to do a study on ecigs.  They scrounged around until they found an old outdated tank to use for testing.  The coil in the tank was designed to handle up to 3.7 volts as all the old style coils did.  Then, in a stroke of genius, they decided to see what would happen if they strapped that 3.7 volt coil to a 100volt battery.

Any 10 year old could have predicted the outcome, but not many 10 year olds have an Ivy League degree.

As the coil fried into smithereens they tested the gasses generated from their mini nuclear reaction.  Pretty much the same gasses you would expect if you took a blowtorch to a banana.  Then they published the results.

Politicians from coast to coast latched onto the Harvard study as verifiable evidence that ecigs are made in the devil's workshop.  Which is why ecigs today are banned in many places coast to coast including the entire state of Indiana.

Which also begs the question, if you take a blowtorch to a politician what type of gasses would be produced?

[anubias]

That would be a worthwhile study at least.

[Stosh]

After about 45 years smoking, I have been vaping (smoke-free) for the past 6 3/4 years.  I do miss hacking up a lung in the morning, smelling like a toxic waste dump, and not being able to smell my farts (no, they don't smell like roses)

The thousands of $$$ I haven't paid in taxes is just icing on the cake.....

[Idaho_Cowboy]

After about 45 years smoking, I have been vaping (smoke-free) for the past 6 3/4 years.  I do miss hacking up a lung in the morning, smelling like a toxic waste dump, and not being able to smell my farts (no, they don't smell like roses)

The thousands of $$$ I haven't paid in taxes is just icing on the cake.....

Good for you.
I don't understand why the government doesn't like smokers. They pay extra taxes and die before they can collect social security.

[240B]

Good for you.
I don't understand why the government doesn't like smokers. They pay extra taxes and die before they can collect social security.

Logic, reality, and thinking  [shudder], have no place in government.

Government is all about what I can take. Gimme more. I want more. Gimme more! I will dance like a puppet if you pay more money. That is what "government" is.

[Hondo69]

Next month, new regulation go into effect in the UK.

 - All e-cigarettes and e-liquids must be registered with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency before they can be sold
 - Refillable tanks for e-cigarettes must be no bigger than 2ml capacity
 - E-liquids cannot be sold in quantities greater than 10ml
 - Unless registered as a medicine the strength of nicotine in an E-liquid must not exceed 20mg/ml
 - The packaging of E-liquids must be child-resistant and tamper evident
 - Certain additives such as the stimulants caffeine and taurine or colourings are banned
 - New labelling requirements

No good deed goes unpunished.

[Hondo69]

Life is hard - don't make it worse.

Doctors have to go through about 12 years of training before they can open a "practice", and even then they must take an oath - do no harm.  But any jackass can become a politician, no training required.  They make me buy a license before I can go fishing but then turn right around and say that requiring an ID to vote is unfair.  Are fish higher on the evolutionary scale than politicians?

April 15th is almost here and the Holy Grail for politicians is taxes.  Without those precious taxes, income they call it, politicians are nothing.  Remove tax income from the equation and we have absolutely no need whatsoever for politicians.  None - zero, zip, nada.  When you stop and think about all politicians really do is decide who, what and when to tax, and then how to spend.  That's it.

Right about now would be an excellent time to put to test the Democrat's new motto - Resist!

Let's see how our fearless leaders spend their time when we cut off the spigot.  They can spin around all they want in a collective circle jerk and yell "Save The Children" every 15 seconds.  It won't matter one iota because all their power has been stripped away.  They might as well go fishing - but they'll need a license first.