Call for rethink on anti-electronic-cigarette stance

The US Republican Congressman Duncan Hunter, of California, has urged the House minority leader, Nancy Pelosi, to reconsider her party’s anti-electronic-cigarette stance and support changes to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) rules, according to a piece by Guy Bentley in The Daily Caller.

After the passage of the spending bill on Friday, Pelosi circulated a document to colleagues claiming a host of victories for the Democrats. One such victory was killing a rider that would have changed the FDA’s rules requiring all electronic cigarette products launched after February 15, 2007, the so-called grandfather date, to undergo the costly Pre-Market Tobacco Applications process.

The vast majority of vaping products came onto the market after 2007 and small vaping businesses are unlikely to be able to afford to get their products approved. As a result, 99 percent of the industry could be wiped out.

Pelosi claimed the rider represented a ‘gift to the tobacco industry’ driven by Republican ideology.

Hunter, along with many electronic cigarette advocates, strongly disputes this point. In fact, pro-vaping groups argue that the FDA regulations will stifle one of the main challenges to traditional cigarettes and prop up the profits of big tobacco companies. In a letter sent on December 21 and seen by The Daily Caller News Foundation, Hunter wrote: ‘Ironically, by not supporting the commercial availability of e-cigarettes, with all their advancements in recent years, you are giving your support – whether intended or not – to traditional cigarettes and other products. Although you may not want to acknowledge it, e-cigarettes are a suitable alternative to cigarettes, and they could very well save my life, as well as the lives of so many Americans who are making their best effort to quit cigarettes. It is unfortunate that you are willing to deny these potentially life-saving products, and then boast about doing so.’