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Regulators unsure how to treat electronic cigarettes

By Nathan Porter – The Washington Times
The questions concerning the safety of electronic cigarette use are neatly matched by the questions concerning how — and even whether — governments should regulate the product.
Having long strictly limited marketing and use of traditional tobacco products, the Food and Drug Administration is expected in the coming days to propose its first rules and restrictions on electronic cigarettes.
About half of the states, including Colorado, Maryland, Minnesota and New Hampshire, haven’t waited for federal action and have banned the sale of e-cigarettes to minors. A group of 41 state attorneys general wrote to the FDA urging the federal government to “take all available measures” to regulate the product.
The U.S. Department of Transportation has said that federal regulations that prohibit smoking on airplanes will be extended to e-cigarettes.
But the industry is arguing that e-cigarettes are fundamentally different from traditional cigarettes and shouldn’t face the same one-size-fits-all restrictions. Some companies go further, saying e-cigarettes can lower smoking rates for more dangerous tobacco products and should, in certain circumstances, be encouraged.

Critics say that when it comes to regulation — and, just as important, taxation — the booming e-cigarette industry is trying to have it both ways as the government considers its regulatory approach.
“When it’s convenient to be like tobacco, they’re like tobacco,” Stanton A. Glantz, director of the University of California-San Francisco’s Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education, recently told The New York Times. “And when it’s not convenient, they’re not.”
The regulatory mishmash is not limited to the United States.
In Germany, Norway, Ireland, Poland and Portugal, the sale and use of electronic cigarettes is completely legal. In a closely watched vote last month, the European Parliament decided to regulate e-cigarette marketing the same as regular tobacco products, forbidding sales to minors and most advertisements in the economic bloc.
But EU legislators rejected a proposal to regulate e-cigarettes with the same stringency as medical devices, which would have put a major crimp in a product that is gaining increasing popularity in markets such as France. If the measure passed, e-cigarettes could have been sold only in pharmacies.
Charles Hamshaw-Thomas, spokesman for E-Lites, Britain’s biggest e-cigarette seller, called the Parliament’s vote a “fantastic result for public health and the millions of smokers around Europe who are switching to e-cigarettes.”
“Common sense,” he added, “has prevailed.”
In Britain, e-cigarettes are not subject to the same use, sale and advertising regulations as traditional tobacco products. Three e-cigarette commercials, however, were aired by E-Lites, and its rivals were banned last month.
The Canadian government has stated that officials do not endorse e-cigarettes but that the sale and use of the product are legal. South Korea also has deemed e-cigarettes legal, but the government has imposed heavy taxes on e-cigarettes to discourage use, particularly among teenagers.
Switzerland has adopted a split approach: While nicotine-free e-cigarettes are legal nationwide, e-cigarettes containing nicotine cannot be sold within the country. They can, however, be imported.
Dubai, Lebanon, Mexico, Panama and Singapore are among the many countries that have adopted outright bans on the e-cigarette use.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/oct/31/regulators-unsure-how-to-treat-electronic-cigarett/?page=2&utm_medium=RSS&utm_source=RSS_Feed

E-cigarette industry lobbies to avoid regulation as tobacco product

By Stuart Pfeifer
They have the shape, feel and nicotine of tobacco cigarettes, but e-cigarettes should not be regulated like tobacco products, makers of the popular new product say.

The Smoke Free Alternatives Trade Assn., an industry group, is lobbying to avoid Food and Drug Administration regulation under the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act.
“This is a critical time for … the e-cig industry at large,” said Cynthia Cabrera, the trade group’s executive director. “While our industry understands reasonable and appropriate regulation is needed, it is vital our young industry not be grouped with combustible cigarettes as federal guidelines are developed for these products. Excessive regulation could limit adult access to e-cigs and stifle growth and innovation in the segment.”
Members of the trade organization said they are traveling to Washington on Nov. 4 to urge members of Congress to not classify the devices as tobacco products.
Last month, attorneys general from 40 states urged the FDA to regulate e-cigarettes as tobacco products, noting the cigarette alternatives contain highly addictive nicotine and, unlike cigarettes, can be advertised and sold to children.
“People, especially kids, are being led to believe that e-cigarettes are a safe alternative, but they are highly addictive and can deliver strong doses of nicotine,” Massachusetts Atty. Gen. Martha Coakley said. “We urge the FDA to act quickly to ensure that these products are regulated to protect the public, and are no longer advertised or sold to youth.”
E-cigarettes are plastic or metal devices, shaped like oversized cigarettes, that use batteries to heat nicotine oil and create a vapor that users inhale. They provide nicotine without inhaling the smoke of burning tobacco.
The products have become so popular that some tobacco companies have been acquiring e-cigarette manufacturers as a way of getting into the business.
The Centers for Disease Control reported recently that e-cigarette use by middle and high school students doubled from 2011 to 2012. The trade group has scoffed at that report, noting that it was based on the number of students who tried the product, not those that regularly used them.
Further, the group said, studies have found that e-cigarettes are a safe alternative to tobacco cigarettes, the health risks of which are widely known.
“There is no evidence of which we are aware which would suggest that the risk/safety profile of e-cigarettes is in any way comparable to that of tobacco products,” Todd A. Harrison, an attorney for the trade group, said in an Oct. 17 letter to the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.
http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-ecigarette-industry-lobby-tobacco-product-20131024,0,2455539.story#axzz2iesS7W00