New vapor bill targets deeming rule

A bill expected this week to be placed before the US House of Representatives would weaken a U.S. Food and Drug Administration  (FDA) rule governing electronic cigarettes and represent a major victory for the $4.4 billion US vaping industry, according to a story by Toni Clarke and Jilian Mincer for Reuters.

The bill, from Rep. Duncan Hunter of California (R), would reverse the deeming rule that deemed electronic cigarettes to be tobacco products, subject to the same regulations governing traditional cigarettes.

Clarke and Mincer said that Hunter’s bill, which had been reviewed by Reuters, would exempt vaping devices from many of those regulations, ‘including a requirement that new products be reviewed and authorized by the FDA before being sold.

Electronic-cigarette makers say this process is too expensive and would prevent people from gaining access to the products.

The Reuters story said the bill added momentum to a series of legal and legislative efforts by tobacco and vaping companies to derail the FDA rule, though it was unclear how much support it would garner.

A separate measure from Republican Representative Tom Cole of Oklahoma and Democrat Sanford Bishop of Georgia would exempt thousands of vaping devices currently on the market from FDA approval. The Cole-Bishop proposal is expected to be attached as a rider to President Donald Trump’s spending plan, which could be voted on as early as this week.

However, Hunter’s bill would go further, bringing the entire regulatory process to a halt.