As the FDA rules were released to the public at 8.45 this morning, business owners, advocates and members of the vaping community all came to the same conclusion. The 500 pages of this document will destroy the electronic cigarette market as it is currently known.
Less than a week after the Royal College of Physicians released its recommendations with regards to this industry, another group of bumbling bureaucrats has decided to ignore reason, sense, and science at the expense of the lives of the people.
One of the most renowned and respected collections of doctors on the planet declare that these devices have the potential to replace combustible tobacco products for millions of smokers, reducing the harm caused by an estimated 95-99.9%, and therefore reducing the number of smoking-related illnesses and deaths. Actual medical professionals are putting their weight behind the concept of harm reduction through vaping. At the same time, politicians and pencil pushers across the board believe they have more accurate information as they continue to ignore the mounting evidence and push for a way to cripple the industry and push more people back to smoking.
While some in the community have been begging the majority to pay attention and get involved, 99% of the 10,000,000 in the United States who use vapor products still have no idea what’s going on. They will realize something happened when they show up to buy some e-liquid and the shop is closed.
With the strike of the pen, the FDA has taken an industry filled with hard-working people who care deeply about the products that they sell, and pretty much told them they are now working in the very industry they are fighting against. By declaring e-cigarettes as tobacco products (something that they do not contain), the Federal Government has given themselves and the states the ability to tax these products at a much higher rate and simultaneously remove almost every business owner from the equation. For companies to remain in the marketplace, they will have to pay in excess of one million dollars for each product they bring forward and hope that the FDA will allow it through. They’ll then do the same for every flavor and nicotine level that they offer.
Every advocacy group has gingerly weighed in, each stating that although the outline of the rules show that the industry is in trouble, it will take a few days of analysis to figure out exactly how bad it actually is:
SFATA: These new regulations create an enormously cost-prohibitive regulatory process for manufacturers to market their products to adult smokers and vapers. It also limits access to the 40 million adult smokers in the U.S. yet to make the switch to vaping and cripples a multi-billion dollar job-creating industry, the majority of which are made of small businesses.
TVA: Despite an overabundance of distorted and misleading information propagated by some in the public health community, the science is clear – responsibly manufactured vapor products are not only a safer alternative to traditional combustible products, but also provide smokers with a viable path to reducing their tobacco consumption and quitting altogether. Today’s action by the FDA will do nothing to improve our nations’ public health objectives. To the contrary, today’s action will yank responsibly manufactured vapor products from the hands of adult smokers and replace them with the tobacco cigarettes they had been trying to give up.
TVA
CASAA: CASAA is urging our members to be patient and remember that nothing in the rule will affect you tomorrow, next week, or even next month. The FDA will take time to actually implement the new rule. Please bear with all of us. We will be working diligently to provide accurate information and analysis just as fast as possible.
CASAA
We here at the GuideToVaping will be following the advice given above. As we stated last night, this is not a time to panic as much as every fiber inside wants to go to Washington and hurt people. Be prepared to jump on the Calls To Action, but in the mean time, don’t give the regulators the pleasure of seeing the pain they have just caused.
And with the stroke of a pen, thousands of people will be unemployed. Shop owners will be financially ruined. The general public will be forced back onto combustible tobacco and additional health care costs incurred by the taxpayers. This just here in the USA then of course there will be ripple effects throughout the rest of the world as China will need to lay off thousands. Corruption here in our government has reached new levels
I started smoking when I was 12 years old. Thanks to vaping I have been cigarette free for 3 years 4 months and 6 days… I use to smoke 2 packs a day. When I started vaping I was using 24mg of nicotine now I’m transitioning to 3. All the fda is doing is making this country weaker by hurting the improving health of the population. If I can’t vape I am more than likely going to go back to smoking.. I don’t want to but it will probably happen. Thanks FDA for not caring about the people that allow you to exist.
They claim it is for the sake of the children, in reality it is for the tobacco companies, anything before 2007 will be grandfathered…. cig-a-likes …. owned now buy tobacco companies…..