Tag: regulation

Costa Rica Readies to Ban Vaping in Public Spaces
Costa Rican lawmakers this week approved in a second debate a bill that will the ban the use of vaping products such as e-cigarettes in public spaces. The bill, Project 21.658, passed with 33 votes in favor and seven against. Seventeen deputies did not participate in the vote and the bill must still be signed into law and published in La Gaceta before it takes effect, according to the Tico Times.
Credit: Zerophoto
In addition to banning vaping in most public spaces, the bill also sets the grounds for the country to implement a tax on vaping devices and accessories, such as coils and e-liquids. The Health Ministry endorses the bill, which was first introduced prior to the coronavirus pandemic.
“I think this project is extremely important for the country. It has the full support of the Ministry of Health,” a lawmaker supporting the bill said. “It is completely in line with the health alert we already issued regarding the use of vaping devices, where we have even been very clear that there is no study that can show e-cigarettes are a smoking cessation therapy. On the contrary, we have to disincentivize the use of cigarettes and the use of vaporizers.”
The taxes would be allocated to the Costa Rican Social Security Fund (CCSS) and be earmarked for the treatment of diseases related to tobacco consumption.
The Red Nacional Antitabaco (RENATA) – National Anti-Smoking Network – expressed its satisfaction with the approval of the law. Nydia Amador, president of that organization, assured that the new regulations will give substantial support to the Ley de Control de Tabaco (Tobacco Control Law).
“It is important to consider the vulnerability of all consumers of tobacco products, including electronic devices or vapers, to any disease of the respiratory system, since the first studies on the effects of the use of vaporizers and heated tobacco products show negative consequences for the lungs and the immune and cardiovascular systems,” said Amador.
RENATA also stated that vaping advocates “tried to confuse public opinion by claiming that vaping is 95 percent less harmful than tobacco use.”
Many organizations such as the United Kingdom’s Royal College of Physicians and Public Health England (PHE) have released studies that show vapor products have been scientifically proven to be 95 percent less harmful than cigarettes and related tobacco products. This is supported by the U.S. Academies of Science which has also found that e-cigarettes have a lower harm profile compared to their combustible competition.
October 7, 2021
Hong Kong May Ban All Vapor, Heated-Tobacco Products
The largest political party in Hong Kong has edged its support towards a ban on all vapor and heated-tobacco products. Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress (DAB) of Hong Kong lawmaker Wong Ting-kwong, chairman of the Bills Committee on Smoking, said the government has asked him to host a meeting next Friday to decide whether the government should finalize its stance on electronic nicotine-delivery systems (ENDS).
Photo Credits: Timothy S. Donahue
According to reports, the DAB decided to throw their support behind the motion of a complete ban on the new tobacco products in a recent meeting, according to The Standard. With DAB lawmakers making up more than half of the committee on smoking members, the legislative amendment banning ENDS products is expected to be passed in this term. The proposed bill is aimed at amending the Smoking Ordinance by targeting ENDS products was introduced in February 2019 to outlaw the importation and sales – but not consumption – of ENDS products.
Liberal Party’s Peter Shiu Ka-fai said that while 64 countries, including China, had started regulating ENDS products, authorities should handle e-cigarettes and heated-tobacco products separately, as there is currently insufficient evidence to ban heated-tobacco products. Shiu also added that it would be unfair to ban heated-tobacco products but not traditional cigarettes, given they are all tobacco products.
The proposal was among four bills that the Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administration Region (LegCo), the unicameral legislature of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China, stopped working on last June. Legco stated at the time that it would not ban ENDS because “the products provide smokers with safer smoke-free alternatives.”
However, after Beijing endorsed the Hong Kong government’s request to extend the Legco term by a year, a new bills committee was set up last November. It last met in June this year to discuss the bill.
According to the Food and Health Bureau, the government plans to secure passage of the bill within the current Legco term, which will end in October, The Standard reports. Sales of e-cigarettes are currently banned in 30 jurisdictions, including Macau and Singapore.
September 3, 2021
Illinois Passes 2 Laws to Prevent Youth Access
The state of Illinois passed two new laws this week aimed at making it harder for minors to access vaping products. The first law (Senate Bill 512) prohibits the use of cartoon characters, video game characters, and popular children’s media from advertisements for e-cigarettes. It also makes it harder to buy vaping products online. Buyers will now have to use a credit card or check in the buyer’s name.
Credit: Sharafmaksumov
The second law (Senate Bill 555) amends the Substance Use Disorder Act to include vape shops. Adding vape shops allows the Illinois Department of Human Services to do compliance checks on the sale of e-cigarettes according to the minimum purchasing age of 21, according to B100. The legislation also allows underage individuals to test retailer’s compliance under the supervision of law enforcement as a part of a compliance check without violating tobacco laws.
You must be 21 in Illinois to buy e-cigarettes. Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker signed the two bills into law on Tuesday. Both Senate Bills 512 and 555 will go into effect on January 1, 2022.
“This legislation will make our communities healthier places to live, and most importantly, will save lives. I’m proud that Illinois is taking yet another step toward protecting the health and safety of our young residents from tobacco and e-cigarettes and I want to thank Attorney General Raoul, our partners in the General Assembly, as well as the advocates and organizations for their work to make these laws possible,” Pritzker said in a statement.
August 26, 2021
FDA: ‘Refuse to File’ Letter for JD Nova, 4.5 Million PMTAs
The JD Nova Group submitted premarket tobacco product applications (PMTAs) for an estimated 4.5 million products, approximately two-thirds of the total number of PMTA submissions. Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a Refuse to File (RTF) letter to the company. The letter notified JD Nova that the majority of their PMTAs did not meet the filing requirements for a new tobacco product seeking a marketing order.
Credit: Tashatuvango
“This RTF does not apply to all product applications submitted by JD Nova. The remaining product applications the company submitted by the Sept. 9, 2020 deadline are still moving through the review process,” the FDA stated in a press release. “As a result of this RTF action, the company must remove approximately 4.5 million products from the market or risk enforcement action by FDA. The company may resubmit a complete application for these products at any time. However, the products may not be marketed unless they receive a marketing granted order.”
During the filing stages of application review, the FDA reviews for basic information to ensure applications contain the required material for scientific review, according to the release. If required contents for filing are missing, the FDA refuses to file the application.
“JD Nova was issued the RTF letter because the company’s applications for these products lacked an adequate Environmental Assessment (EA),” the release states. “Under FDA’s regulations implementing the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), an EA must be prepared for each proposed authorization, and an EA adequate for filing addresses the relevant environmental issues.”
JD Nova was one of more than 360 companies included on a recent list of products that had submitted a timely PMTA to the FDA and was allowed to market products for up to one year, until Sept. 9 2021, or until the FDA makes a regulatory decision such as refusing to file a PMTA.
From January through July 2021, the FDA has issued more than 135 warning letters to firms selling or distributing more than 1,470,000 unauthorized ENDS and that did not submit premarket applications by the Sept. 9 deadline. One company, Visible Vapors, had more than 15 million products registered with the FDA. On FDA’s Warning Letters page, you can find these warning letters by searching “Center for Tobacco Products” under “Issuing Office.” The regulatory agency has issued at least two warning letters in August so far.
August 9, 2021
Infrastructure Act Includes Vaping Ban on Amtrak Trains
Tucked away in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act crafted by a bipartisan group of senators is a ban on the use of electronic cigarettes on the nation’s government-owned rail service — and President Joe Biden’s favorite method of transportation.
Credit: BT Renstrom
“Amtrak shall prohibit smoking, including the use of electronic cigarettes, onboard all Amtrak trains,” the bill says. “The term ‘electronic cigarette’ means a device that delivers nicotine or other substances to a user of the device in the form of a vapor that is inhaled to simulate the experience of smoking.”
Amtrak already has a policy prohibiting smoking and the use of electronic smoking on trains, but the bill would codify that regulation into law, according to the Washington Examiner.
Democratic Delaware Sen. Tom Carper and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, Washington’s nonvoting representative in Congress, previously spearheaded the effort to make Amtrak’s smoking ban law.
“In 2021, smoking has no place in enclosed public spaces like train cars. As a near-daily Amtrak rider, I have supported their policy prohibiting smoking and even introduced legislation with Congresswoman Norton to make that policy federal law,” Carper said in a statement in June. “I think we can all agree that it’s time to ban smoking on passenger rail.”
The bill, the text of which was unveiled Sunday night, includes $6.57 billion in grants to Amtrak for the railway’s northeast corridor, which connects Washington, D.C., to Boston, and $12.65 billion for Amtrak’s national network. Another $36 billion would go to federal-state partnership rail grants, with $24 billion of that targeting the northeast corridor.
August 4, 2021
Sheridan, Wyoming Vapor Ordinance Fails First Reading
During its first meeting of August Monday night, the Sheridan City Council in Wyoming voted against an ordinance that would have increased the fine amount and penalties for any minor possessing or using electronic cigarettes or other vaping products on first reading by a 4 to 3 vote.
Credit: NiroWorld
The penalty would have increased as much as 2,900 percent from the current fee of $25 to a maximum of $750, according to city attorney Brendon Kerns. Violators would not have been required to appear in court or perform community service or serve probation and would have been guaranteed full expungement of the incident from their criminal records within six months — regardless of whether it is their first or subsequent offense.
Councilor Kristen Jennings was one of the four councilors who voted against the ordinance, stating that the council should not rush to pass a law without understanding its implications on the community.
“I realize that the school district has asked for help, but at the same time pushing forward something that could potentially be full of holes may not be helping anybody to the best of the ability that we’re trying to do,” said Jennings. “So it could be shooting ourselves in the foot, and in a way, I think the premise is great and I do see we have an issue, but at the same time giving ourselves a self-imposed deadline to not be able to work through some of these questions and concerns. It seems like some of the citizens have too. I don’t know how well that benefits anybody.”
August 3, 2021
Ukraine Uses WHO Report to Justify Flavor Ban, Vape Rules
Ukrainian lawmakers passed a new law today prohibiting the use of electronic nicotine-delivery systems (ENDS) in public places as well as advertising, sponsorship, and promotion of e-cigarettes. The law also bans the sale of flavored e-liquids other than tobacco flavors.
Credit: Da Boost
The parliamentarians said that justification for the regulations is based on the World Health Organization’s new report that suggests e-cigarettes are a gateway to smoking, and that they are as harmful as conventional cigarettes, according to the Independent Women’s Forum. Lawmakers also claimed the flavor ban would reduce underage vaping in Ukraine, while data from the U.S. concerning flavor bans has showed banning flavors actually increases youth use of combustible products.
In its report on vaping, published on Tuesday, the WHO speaks approvingly of the 32 countries where the sale and use of vaping devices is banned. In those 32 countries, people are still free to use combustible tobacco products, which data shows is responsible for more than 7 million deaths each year globally, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
“Eighty-four countries still have no bans or regulations to address ENDS, leaving them particularly vulnerable to the activities of the tobacco and related industries,” says the report, which was funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, the foundation started by American billionaire and former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Not coincidentally, Bloomberg has been appointed the “WHO Global Ambassador for Noncommunicable Diseases and Injuries”—a largely honorary title granted in recognition of the money he spends on tobacco control and other health policy efforts, according to the WHO.
Tobacco harm reduction advocates and vaping industry representatives denounced the WHO report as “nonsensical and dangerous.”
“The WHO has a long-standing anti-vaping stance and this latest attack on a sector that is literally saving millions of lives worldwide flies in the face of scientific evidence, common sense and harm reduction,” said John Dunne, director general of the U.K. Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA) in a statement.
“This report demonstrates that, sadly, the WHO still doesn’t understand the fundamental difference between addiction to tobacco smoking, which kills millions of people every year, and addiction to nicotine, which doesn’t,” said John Britton, professor of epidemiology at University of Nottingham.
July 31, 2021
U.S. Lawmakers Introduce Bill to Require Vapor User Fees
Six U.S. senators have introduced legislation that would require e-cigarette manufacturers pay user fees to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to provide the regulatory agency. The fees would finance additional resources for the FDA to conduct stronger oversight of the e-cigarette industry and increase awareness of the danger of e-cigarettes.
U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin joined U.S. Senators Jeanne Shaheen, Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, Tammy Baldwin, and Mitt Romney introduced the Resources to Prevent Youth Vaping Act to protect children from the dangers of e-cigarettes, according to press release from Durbin’s office. Companion legislation will be introduced in the House by U.S. Representatives Cheri Bustos and Brian Fitzpatrick.
Credit: Larry
“Big Vape has hooked nearly four million kids on e-cigarettes, creating a vaping epidemic that is threatening our next generation with a lifetime of nicotine addiction and disease,” said Durbin. “The FDA needs to clear the shelves of these dangerous and addictive products, and Congress needs to pass the Resources to Prevent Youth Vaping Act, which will help provide FDA with the resources to better regulate this market. Enough is enough. The health of our children cannot wait any longer.”
The Resources to Prevent Youth Vaping Act increases the total amount that will be collected in tobacco user fees by $100 million in Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 and indexes that amount to inflation for future years. The bill also authorizes FDA to collect user fees from all manufacturers of products that have been deemed as tobacco products by FDA, including e-cigarettes, according to Durbin.
Currently, manufacturers of traditional combustible tobacco products pay into FDA user fees, but e-cigarette companies are exempt due to a loophole in the law. The amount collected from individual e-cigarette manufacturers will be proportional to their share of the overall tobacco market, as determined by FDA. FDA would be able to use this additional revenue from e-cigarette user fees to conduct safety review of vaping products, prevent sales of e-cigarettes to minors, help support efforts to educate youth on the dangers of e-cigarettes and increase the agency’s oversight and enforcement capabilities.
Earlier this year, Durbin introduced the bicameral Tobacco Tax Equity Act to reduce youth tobacco use by closing loopholes in the tax code that have long been exploited by the tobacco industry to avoid regulation and taxes for their products. The bill would also apply tax parity across all tobacco products, including establishing the first federal e-cigarette tax and increased the tobacco tax rate for the first time in a decade.
July 26, 2021
Greenhut: Utah Nicotine Limits Bad for Harm Reduction
When it comes to government regulation, it’s sometimes hard to get the details right, according to Steven Greenhut in an opinion hew wrote for InsideSources. He says that the Utah Department of Public Health’s proposed new rules that would reduce the amount of nicotine that sellers and manufacturers can include in their “closed-system” electronic cigarettes derail harm reduction efforts.
Two years ago, the agency adopted a compromise that capped the amount of nicotine in closed vaping products at 5 percent. That 2019 rule attempted to protect consumers from the over-consumption of nicotine. But the 5 percent cap still enabled vape users to consume a sufficient amount of nicotine to satisfy their cravings. However, the newly proposed regulation would reduce the nicotine cap to 3 percent.
Greenhut states that the proposed rules could make consumers vape more than they do now, switch to open systems that allow the use of higher-nicotine liquids or even mix their own e-liquid recipes, raising a host of troubling health concerns. Some might even return to cigarette smoking.
“Regulators, at the behest of anti-smoking activists, are missing the forest for the trees—or at least overlooking the 7,000 carcinogenic chemicals that make traditional cigarette smoking so detrimental while focusing on one highly addictive but not particularly dangerous substance,” he states. “Many public-health advocates take a zero-tolerance approach toward anything tobacco or nicotine-related. They seek to ban—or overly regulate—e-cigarettes as a means to reduce availability. Their goal is abstinence, although they often support the use of Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved smoking-cessation products, such as patches and gum, that contain some nicotine.”
In their zeal to quash the use of vape and other lower-risk nicotine products, health advocates are endangering public health, explains Greenhut. “One needn’t be a health expert to realize that if nicotine-addicted people can’t get enough nicotine to fulfill their needs, they will try alternatives,” he states. “Utah already adopted a defensible approach to nicotine regulation. Maybe now, the best approach is to leave well enough alone.”
Steven Greenhut is Western Region director for the R Street Institute.
July 22, 2021
Boston Suburb Bans Sales to Anyone Born This Century

Photo: Ryan
The town of Brookline, Massachusetts, will prohibit the sale of all tobacco-related products to anybody born after Jan. 1, 2000, reports Filter. The restriction, the first of its kind in the United States, is designed to prevent future generations from using not only tobacco but also nicotine.
The law also prohibits individuals and companies from selling vapor products to anyone in that age category.
In November 2020, Brookline officials voted overwhelmingly for the “first-in-the-nation Tobacco Free Generation,” paving the way for the current ban. On July 19, Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey confirmed that the measure did not interfere with any state laws or the constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, ensuring its legality.
Public health groups lauded Brookline’s decision, which they view as a potential model for others to follow.
“In addition to preventing a new generation from being addicted to nicotine—and facing the long-term health issues that come with it—Brookline citizens who smoke will be further motivated to quit as smoking becomes rarer around them,” said Lauren Huber, the executive director of Action on Smoking and Health, in a statement.
Harm reduction proponents, by contrast, lambasted the idea. “Not only will enforcement of this become a nightmare, but it continues to push prohibitionist policies that inevitably send people to underground, unregulated markets,” Matt Sutton, the director of media relations for the Drug Policy Alliance.
“The whole measure is ridiculous, especially if you imagine how it will function in 2030 or 2040,” echoed Clive Bates, a tobacco control expert and former director of ASH (UK). “It infantilizes adults, sets up illegal trade between older and younger age groups, and ultimately aims at creeping prohibition, with all the crime and abuse that will bring.”
Brookline has a history of aggressive tobacco control. The suburb was an early adopter of indoor smoking bans, raised the legal age to purchase tobacco to 21 in 2014, and capped the number of tobacco licenses for retailers in the market. In the spring of 2019, Brookline banned the sale of flavored tobacco and vaping products, including menthol. Six months later, Massachusetts passed the same kind of flavor ban statewide.
July 22, 2021