FDA Plans To Take Steps To Address Youth Vaping Concerns

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is concerned with youth exposure to tobacco products and this includes electronic cigarettes and other nicotine vaping devices, which is why the agency has begun to take steps aimed at diminishing youth e-cig use.

Notably, the FDA is inclined to encourage smokers to switch to modified risk tobacco products — a classification that may include electronic cigarettes — or to quit entirely. But while the agency believes e-cigs to be potentially less harmful than conventional cigarettes, there is still a concern that such devices may pose a risk to today’s youth.

As Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the current FDA Commissioner, noted during an interview on CNBC’s Squawk Box, the agency “will have done a bad service” to the United States if all they “end up doing is addicting a whole new generation on nicotine through e-cigarettes.”

“If all we end up doing is addicting a whole new generation on nicotine through e-cigarettes, then we will have done a bad service to this country.”

As a result, the agency has begun to explore its options, which includes controlling nicotine levels in conventional cigarettes, potentially reducing their addictive nature. Subsequently, the agency has taken the first step in the rulemaking process towards reducing nicotine levels in nicotine products, which it did by issuing an advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM) on March 15, 2018 seeking comments on a potential nicotine product standard.

Gottlieb, during his interview on Squawk Box, also noted that while nicotine is in fact what makes cigarettes addictive, it’s not the nicotine itself that causes serious ailments such as cancer in those who smoke cigarettes, but rather “the toxins in the combustion.”

“It’s not the nicotine that causes the cancer, it’s all the toxins in the combustion. So it’s really the combustible cigarettes that are the problem.”

What do you think of the FDA’s proposed nicotine product standard?