FDA’s Efforts to Regulate E-Cigarettes

FDA’s Efforts to Regulate E-Cigarettes

UNITED STATES – As reported online by www.fda.gov, the FDA is taking steps to heighten regulations placed on the advertising and sale of e-cigarettes.

Electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS), also known as, among others, e-cigarettes and vape pens, are an alternative to smoking tobacco cigarettes.  While e-cigarettes may provide smokers with a smokeless alternative that may help to curb traditional cigarette use, statistics show that most people who use e-cigarettes also smoke tobacco cigarettes.

Additionally, the increase in advertising over the past decade has attracted people, especially teenagers and young adults, to using e-cigarettes without ever having smoked tobacco cigarettes.  For example, JUUL is a very small e-cigarette that has become increasingly popular among the younger population, even children in their early teenage years who had never previously smoked tobacco cigarettes.

While tobacco use had been on the decline for children and young adults before the introduction of ENDS, tobacco use has resurged since JUUL, and other e-cigarettes, are being used by so many teenagers and young adults throughout the country.  The rise in tobacco use corresponds with the rise in e-cigarette use, demonstrating that there appears to be a correlation between the two.

Because the safety and effectiveness of ENDS are not yet fully known, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has made the regulation of ENDS a top priority for the agency.  In 2016, the FDA gave the agency’s “Center for Tobacco Products (CTP)” regulatory authority over all ENDS.  Since 2016, the FDA has worked to strengthen regulations over ENDS, but because the products are still relatively new on the market, the FDA’s regulations will have to evolve.  The overall goal of heightened regulation is to ensure that consumers are aware of the dangers of using any ENDS device.