The Vapor Technology Association (VTA) celebrated the political currency and success of vaper voters in critical 2024 battleground election states and districts during the recent U.S. elections. According to the trade group, vaper voters helped secure electoral victories for Conservative candidates up and down the ballot.
VTA says its “I Vape I Vote” campaign activated over 360,000 low-propensity voters to support Conservative principles and candidates, including President-elect Donald Trump, in key battleground states and districts in Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin.
“Vaper voters showed up in droves to support Conservative candidates who will protect and preserve the rights of Americans to use flavored vaping products,” said VTA Executive Director Tony Abboud.
“VTA’s I Vape I Vote campaign made clear that vaper voters had their voices heard at the ballot box and ensured that Conservative candidates would deliver full-throated endorsements of Americans’ right to use flavored vapes and, critically, use that support to establish a voter currency which propelled several Conservative candidates into office.
“While we are proud to have engaged in the process with several of these Conservative candidates, we are now ready to see their campaign promises committed to action as they work with President-elect Trump and the relevant federal agencies to fix the broken regulatory process by implementing a streamlined regulatory process that ensures access to flavored vapes is protected and companies and distributors have transparent, rational and affordable rules of the road when it comes to this regulatory framework.”
Representatives of the U.S. vapor industry expressed mixed feelings at the four-year anniversary of the filing of the first premarket tobacco product applications (PMTAs).
Since the Sept. 9, 2020, deadline, the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) has received applications for 26 million novel tobacco products, mostly electronic cigarettes or e-cigarettes.
However, despite its acknowledgement that e-cigarettes overall are less harmful and less toxic than combustible cigarettes, the agency has rejected more than 99 percent of PMTAs for these products.
At the same time, the FDA has authorized 6,670 new combustible tobacco products to be sold in the U.S., including 3,232 new cigars, 1,291 new pipe tobacco products,1,073 new hookah tobacco products and 973 new cigarettes.
According to the Vapor Technology Association (VTA), current CTP Director Brian King has authorized only four vaping devices as alternatives to cigarettes, compared with 1,270 combustible products.
Director King has justified his refusal to authorize flavored e-cigarettes that are widely used by American adults with the need to protect youth. Yet the most recent National Youth Tobacco Survey revealed that the youth vaping rate—the share of users who say they’ve used an e-cigarettes at least once in the past 30 days—has declined to 5.9 percent, the lowest level in more than a decade.
“Since Sep. 9, 2020, 1.93 million Americans have died from smoking cigarettes (480,000 each year), and approximately 64 million Americans suffered from smoking-related disease (16 million each year), according to the CDC, at a cost of hundreds of billions of dollars to the U.S. health care system and gross domestic product,” the VTA wrote in a statement.
“In this time, the FDA has only allowed the purveyors of these deadly combustible products to strengthen their grip on the market. Meanwhile, more and more Americans die from smoking, making this anything but a happy anniversary.”
Representatives of the U.S. vapor industry have welcomed a decision by the Biden Administration to reclassify marijuana.
“The decision clearly underscores this administration’s commitment to listening to constituents and demonstrates a willingness to recognize and accept real-world, category-wide scientific evidence, said Tony Abboud, executive director of the Vapor Technology Association (VTA) in an e-mailed statement.
“In light of today’s decision, VTA is encouraging other agencies within the Biden Administration, specifically, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, to follow the similarly overwhelming body of evidence on the use of vaping products as effective harm reduction and smoking cessation tools for adult smokers.
“In just the past year, FDA’s selective pattern of prioritizing politics over science has led to the approval of more than 650 new cigarettes. VTA reiterates its call for the FDA to follow suit with other agencies in the Administration to stop turning a blind eye to the overwhelming body of science proving the benefits of flavored nicotine options to Americans looking to quit smoking.”
The Vapor Technology Association (VTA) announced the launch of a cable news ad buy targeting Sen. Chuck Schumer and his proposed ban on Zyn nicotine pouches. The ad runs this week on FOX News and FOX Business during key programming slots, including “FOX and Friends,” “Kudlow,” and “The Five.”
Sen. Charles Schumer
The ad connects a proposed ban on e-cigarettes with a ban on all less harmful, tobacco-free nicotine products, such as Zyn nicotine pouches. The ad also calls out entrenched bureaucrats at the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Tobacco Products (CTP), led by Brian King, for repeatedly blocking access for millions to e-cigarettes as harm reduction tools that the science has proven are the most effective product on the market to help people quit smoking cigarettes, according to an emailed press release.
“Sen. Schumer and the FDA are simply wrong: wrong on e-cigarettes, wrong on Zyn, and wrong on the science,” said Tony Abboud, executive director of VTA. “Rather than give adult smokers broader access to a greater number of lower-risk alternatives, the FDA and CTP have instead imposed a de facto ban on e-cigarettes – and Zyn is next.”
The ad states that Schumer’s proposed Zyn ban precisely mimics his attempts to eliminate e-cigarette use nationwide, amounting to an assault on Americans’ personal freedom to choose lower-risk, tobacco-free nicotine products that overwhelming scientific and medical data demonstrates are effective at helping adults quit smoking.
The Vapor Technology Association (VTA) today announced the launch of a cable news ad buy in the U.S. targeting Senator Chuck Schumer and his proposed ban on Zyn nicotine pouches. The ad runs this week on FOX News and FOX Business during key programming slots, including “FOX and Friends,” “Kudlow,” and “The Five.”
The ad connects a proposed ban on e-cigarettes with a ban on all less harmful, tobacco-free nicotine products, such as Zyn nicotine pouches. The ad also calls out officials at the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) for repeatedly blocking access for millions of Americans to e-cigarettes as harm reduction tools.
“Sen. Schumer and the FDA are simply wrong: wrong on e-cigarettes, wrong on Zyn, and wrong on the science,” said Tony Abboud, executive director of VTA, in a statement. “Rather than give adult smokers broader access to a greater number of lower-risk alternatives, the FDA and CTP have instead imposed a de facto ban on e-cigarettes—and Zyn is next.”
The ad states that Schumer’s proposed Zyn ban mimics his attempts to eliminate e-cigarette use nationwide, amounting to an assault on Americans’ personal freedom to choose lower-risk, tobacco-free nicotine products that overwhelming scientific and medical data demonstrates are effective at helping adults quit smoking.
“Why is the FDA denying access to a wide range of less harmful alternatives to combustible cigarettes that could otherwise be used by millions of adult smokers trying to quit?” asked Abboud.
“Cigarettes kill. Rather than even acknowledging the settled science in support of e-cigarettes and other less harmful, tobacco-free nicotine products in recent years, the CTP has instead authorized nearly 900 new cigarettes for Americans’ use—but Sen. Schumer thinks it’s Zyn you need to be worried about.
“The anti-nicotine FDA and congressional establishment has simply lost its bearings on the strategy of harm reduction, which it applies to every public health crisis, yet refuses to apply to the annual crisis of nearly half a million Americans dying from smoking every single year.”
“VTA is running this ad buy because Americans deserve to know that less harmful nicotine products exist that can help adult smokers trying to quit. VTA supports Americans’ freedom to choose,” said Abboud.
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s call on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Federal Trade Commission to investigate the marketing practices and health effects of Philip Morris International’s Zyn nicotine pouch brand provoked a backlash among advocates of tobacco harm reduction.
“The American people have seen this movie before with less harmful e-cigarettes,” said Tony Abboud, executive director of the Vapor Technology Association (VTA).
“Congressional leaders yell at unelected bureaucrats at the FDA who scurry to remove products from the market that offend their sensibilities—even though those products are less harmful than traditional cigarettes, and have been proven to help people quit smoking deadly cigarettes altogether.
“These misguided actions deprive American adults of less harmful, non-combustible, and non-tobacco nicotine products that are a proven alternative to combustible cigarettes and that the largest clinical trial in the U.S. has found to cause them to quit smoking even if they have no intention to quit cigarettes.
“There is already a de-facto ban on e-cigarettes. Sen. Schumer simply wants this ban extended to other products he and the Washington establishment deem undesirable.
“As with e-cigarettes, Sen. Schumer falsely asserted that Zyn products are popular with younger users. Yet, the National Youth Tobacco Survey data demonstrates that only 1.5 percent of youth have even tried nicotine pouches. When will the federal government stop hiding behind an excuse that has been disproven by their own data?
“VTA stands with Zyn, and the makers of modern oral nicotine pouches, in the fight against arbitrary and capricious government action. Because cigarettes remain the No. 1 cause of preventable death and disease in the U.S., VTA insists on broad access to a wide variety of non-combustible products to preserve freedom of choice for adults who want to use nicotine – and to provide access to proven harm-reduction and smoking-cessation options essential for saving American lives.”
Tony Abboud, director of the Vapor Technology Association.
When the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) issued marketing denial orders (MDOs) for Suorin and Blu PLUS+ e-cigarette products, Tony Abboud, executive director of the Vapor Technology Association (VTA), said the decision was just the latest installment of the FDA and CTP’s efforts to implement its de-facto ban on e-cigarettes in the U.S.
“The constant refrain from CTP is that e-cigarette manufacturers are not providing ‘sufficient scientific evidence’ in their PMTAs, yet CTP refused to answer the Reagan-Udall Foundation’s most fundamental criticism of CTP’s entire regulatory process: that CTP has not clearly articulated what is required to prove what is appropriate for the protection of the public health (APPH) or how it is interpreting what is APPH,” Abboud stated in a release.
He stated that the FDA has failed to objectively define the APPH standard while simultaneously using it to deny marketing authorization to critical smoking cessation and harm-reduction products, which is a “gross overreach” for any governmental institution whose mandate is to follow the science.
“Courts have found that the process has become ‘arbitrary and capricious’ in practice, with CTP leadership choosing on a case-by-case basis how the standard ought to be defined,” he stated. “Meanwhile, companies are simply trying to do the right thing by complying with and adhering to the PMTA process set forth by the FDA.”
Abboud stated that the actions of the FDA and CTP do nothing to protect public health or help Americans who smoke. “VTA once again calls on CTP to reverse course on its misguided actions and restore scientific integrity to its regulatory and decision-making process. Enough is enough,” he wrote.
A new Global Vape Alliance has been announced at the InterTabac Trade Fair in Dortmund, Germany, alongside a declaration to foster collaboration, promote responsible practices and champion the cause of harm reduction in the vaping industry.
The Global Vape Alliance brings together major international vaping bodies including the Electronic Cigarette Industry Committee of the China Electronics Chamber of Commerce (ECCC), the U.S. Vapor Technology Association (VTA), the U.K. Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA) and the Independent European Vape Alliance (IEVA).
The declaration aims to underscore the power of unity within the vaping industry. By coming together under its umbrella, industry leaders will commit to effecting responsible and positive change on a global scale, thereby signifying a new era in the industry’s dedication to public health, environmental sustainability and the well-being of smokers seeking alternatives to traditional tobacco products.
Key highlights of the Global Vape Alliance declaration include:
Regulatory Compliance: The alliance will facilitate the sharing of best practices to ensure member companies adhere to existing laws, regulations and industry standards, with a strong focus on responsible marketing and protecting youth.
Industry Promotion: The alliance aims to elevate the vaping industry’s professionalism, importance and sustainability by fostering communication among industry stakeholders and encouraging technological innovation.
Public Health: Emphasizing harm reduction, the alliance will actively promote the adoption of vaping products among conventional smokers to reduce harm, while openly providing information about their impact on physical health.
Environment Protection: In pursuit of a greener future, the alliance will advocate for eco-friendly strategies, promote recycling, low-carbon design and urge compliance with environmental laws.
Our goal is clear—to make a significant impact on public health, support those looking to quit smoking and contribute to a sustainable, environmentally friendly future.
The Global Vape Alliance firmly believes that unity and cooperation within the vaping industry can lead to a world without smoking.
“Our goal is clear—to make a significant impact on public health, support those looking to quit smoking and contribute to a sustainable, environmentally friendly future. With this declaration, we are combining the international forces of the industry to achieve important goals for the benefit of consumers,” said Dustin Dahlmann, president of the IEVA.
“The signing of the declaration, as I believe, will guide the global vaping industry to the future of healthy development and prosperity. In this regard, ECCC will continue to deepen the cooperation with other partners,” said ECCC Secretary-General Will Ao.
“The vaping sector is entering a critical chapter in its history with increased scrutiny from policy makers, regulators, public health officials, academics and campaigners,” said John Dunne, director general of the UKVIA. “It has to stand up and be counted, show strong leadership and the greatest levels of responsibility. The launch of the Global Vape Alliance and the declaration sets out to show the world that we are committed to best standards, practices and above all making smoking history.”
“Despite the enormous body of science that has declared vaping nicotine dramatically safer than smoking, the vapor industry’s detractors around the globe push a dramatically misinformed narrative,” said Tony Abboud, executive director of the VTA. “Declaring a shared commitment to furthering sound science, truthful information, and a commitment to meaningful regulations, industry leaders around the world can better serve companies and, more importantly, millions of consumers using vaping products to reduce and/or quit smoking cigarettes.”
Fentanyl misinformation could come with consequences much worse than those experienced with EVALI.
By Timothy S. Donahue
Earlier this year, media reports began to circulate that a dangerous trend was beginning to emerge in the vaping industry: the proliferation of fentanyl-laced vapes. “This lethal combination of the potent synthetic opioid fentanyl and electronic cigarettes has raised serious concerns among health experts, law enforcement agencies and the general public,” wrote PharmChek, a drug abuse data source.
The first report of fentanyl-laced vaping products appeared in September 2019, when the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) San Diego division was contacted by local authorities regarding a suspected fentanyl overdose death. The roommate of the deceased, who admitted to vaping fentanyl regularly, told agents there was fentanyl and possibly other drugs located in their shared residence as well as fentanyl-laced “vape” tanks, according to the DEA. The San Diego County Medical Examiner reports that this was the first case in which they had found fentanyl in vape pens.
The vaping devices were not sold in any store. They were not marketed as fentanyl vape pens. The products were adulterated products that were then sold on the black market, according to the DEA. Media reports at the time did not mention that vapes were altered illegally and instead blamed the nicotine vaping industry for the contaminated devices.
During the Next Generation Nicotine Delivery 2023 conference held in Miami in June, Tony Abboud, executive director of the Vapor Technology Association (VTA), said that vaping industry veterans may remember something similar in vaping’s recent past that resembles the fentanyl crisis.
In August 2019, an Illinois man succumbed in a hospital to a mysterious lung disease caused by a vaping product. Soon after, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported the initial instance of what it called e-cigarette or vaping product use-associated lung injury (EVALI). The number of cases hit its peak in September before dropping off through February 2020, at which point there were 2,807 reports and 68 deaths.
Experts believe that one of the primary causes of the EVALI outbreak was vitamin E acetate, which had been added to some vaping products as a thinner. Additionally, many cases included tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)-containing products, not nicotine vaping products. Neither the CDC nor the U.S. Food and Drug Administration challenged the disinformation being disseminated by media outlets and anti-nicotine groups blaming nicotine e-cigarettes for the EVALI crisis. It nearly decimated the vaping industry.
EVALI and the false reporting surrounding its cause boosted misinformation surrounding nicotine vaping products. A study led by researchers at the American Cancer Society at the time showed that perceptions of e-cigarettes as being “more harmful” than cigarettes by adults in the United States more than doubled between 2019 and 2020 and that perceptions of e-cigarettes as “less harmful” declined between 2018 and 2020 when the EVALI concern was at its peak.
It wasn’t until late October 2019 that any government organization stated publicly that nicotine vaping products were not the cause of EVALI. Abboud warned conference attendees that if the e-cigarette industry doesn’t react differently to the misinformation surrounding nicotine vaping and illicit fentanyl-laced vaping products, the industry may not survive.
“The misinformation that went along with the EVALI crisis had a traumatic impact not just on businesses but on consumers’ perceptions about vaping products in general. And it was driven largely by the media,” explained Abboud. “It was on the media every single day …. The most important thing, obviously, at this time, was for our regulatory bodies to figure out and speak clearly about what was causing the problem. That did not occur in the manner that it should have occurred.”
The false link between nicotine vaping products and EVALI was also hijacked by anti-nicotine advocates, such as Matthew L. Myers, who was with the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids at the time, and Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire philanthropist and financial backer of anti-vaping organizations. The day after the CDC EVALI announcement, Myers and Bloomberg hit the airwaves talking about flavored vaping products and their commitment to spend $160 million to remove flavored vaping products from the market. Flavors attract kids, and EVALI would kill them, the group claimed.
“What they said was frankly unconscionable because they leveraged the [then] current EVALI crisis that did not have anything to do with flavored nicotine products to their benefit. The impact of this kind of narrative led to the next day when President Trump announced [d] his ban on all flavors,” said Abboud. “At this point, we knew that the industry was facing somewhat of an existential crisis because they were talking about removing a huge segment of the market and a larger segment of the independent vaping industry. And that would have dramatic repercussions down the road.
“We immediately started acting. We had to get on TV to explain what was really going on with vitamin E acetate to make clear that this was an illicit THC issue. We had to frame the issue in terms of public health. We also had to create the issue in terms of jobs. But we had to do more than that. We had to launch a public affairs campaign that made clear what was at stake with this policy decision that was made in this vacuum without frankly any sort of regulatory process behind it.”
After several e-cigarette advocacy organizations sat down with President Trump to discuss flavors, the FDA only banned flavors in closed pod systems. Disposables were still going to avoid enforcement. Many in the industry say this FDA decision was the catalyst to the current issues of flavors and youth use. The FDA has not authorized a flavor other than tobacco. “But in that, the industry was largely preserved, and companies were able to stay in business,” said Abboud.
Credit: Momius
The next false flag
On May 18, Tom Price, a former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, published an op-ed on FoxNews.com where he started a narrative in the media about fentanyl-laced vaping products being imported from China in disposable vaping products. He offers no evidence of China’s involvement in the importation of fentanyl-laced vaping products other than China making most of the e-cigarette hardware.
“Reports suggest these Chinese manufacturers are also boosting disposable vapes with illegal levels of nicotine to increase addiction levels among our children. But while added nicotine makes e-cigarettes more addictive for our kids, adding fentanyl to them can make them deadly,” Price wrote. “Given the extent that China funnels fentanyl into America, it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that reports indicate officials have found some of these vapes laced with fentanyl.”
There is no denying that fentanyl is a public health crisis. People are dying from overdosing on fentanyl because the U.S. has a huge problem in keeping illicit drugs out of the country, said Abboud. However, the “out-of-the-blue op-ed” tying fentanyl to Chinese-made disposable flavored vaping products is a new approach and new message.
Abboud then revealed a series of op-eds that were published in June all making the same points. “It was quickly [brought up again] in June by the former GOP National Committee member from Nevada who makes almost identical statements, ‘flavored disposable vaping products are dangerous, but those coming from communist China are especially dangerous because they include fentanyl,’” said Abboud. Now, according to the op-ed, “kids are experimenting with vaping fentanyl. You see what’s happening here. That was June 10. Then media reports began talking about fentanyl vapes from Mexico. On June 11, a Georgia State senator penned an op-ed (that toed the same line).”
The unsubstantiated claims that e-cigarettes contain fentanyl are increasing in frequency. Curiously, these cases have involved illicit THC vape pens or other devices—not disposables and not e-cigarettes purchased from reputable manufacturers, according to Abboud. Yet, a bill has now been introduced in the U.S. House filed by a member of Congress from the state of Florida that would remove flavored disposable vaping products from the market because of the fentanyl crisis. This call was amplified by a Florida-based retail association that made the same false claims about nicotine e-cigarettes.
The unsubstantiated association between vaping and fentanyl is showing up in regulatory conversations as well, but interestingly, only disposables are implicated even though the organic media stories have involved all device types, according to Abboud. He said the first place that he found the association made in a regulatory context was when R.J. Reynolds filed a citizen petition on Feb. 6, 2023, asking for the FDA to use its enforcement powers to remove flavored disposable vaping products from the market because “illicit market-supplied vaping products are being laced with products such as fentanyl, which is lethal in doses as small as 2 milligrams.” A few days later, a bill was introduced in Congress to force the FDA to act on removing flavored disposables.
In March, Robert Califf, commissioner of the FDA, testified before the House Appropriations Committee. “He is questioned by Representative Newhouse, and the question posed was ‘Can you tell us about your plan to get these potentially dangerous Chinese products off of the market and out of the hands of kids, and can you tell us what companies that you have (taken off the market) and that these products don’t contain harmful contents like fentanyl?’ There really hadn’t been much reporting on this issue before this, but (Califf) was asked this question,” said Abboud.
Califf told Congress that “There’s recently been some publicity,” and “it’s no surprise but of great concern to me that fentanyl may be showing up now in vaping products, [that] it was just a matter of time” and that the United States needs an all-of-government approach to protect kids from this threat.
The VTA reviewed all the stories that it could find that mentioned vaping and fentanyl. Abboud confirmed that the device in Reynolds’ petition was not disposable. The devices that were confiscated were vape pens, an open system and a pod device. The authorities, in that case, said that they found that the devices were altered when fentanyl or heroin was injected through the device into the e-liquid. All the other fentanyl reports involved cartridge-style vape pens or THC products. “Of all the cases that we looked at, only one of them even mentioned a disposable, a flavored disposable,” said Abboud. “Perhaps it’s time to ask the question ‘Why are we seeing this manufactured media narrative that is not supported by any publicly available data?’ Creating unfounded fears among consumers about fentanyl will harm the entire vaping industry and will make a mockery of the concept of tobacco harm reduction altogether.”
The ultimate issue is that misinformation, as it relates to e-cigarettes, drives people back to smoking. The FDA has also talked about this publicly. CTP Director Brian King has expressed concerns over the misinformation surrounding vaping products, and he understands that there are misperceptions as it relates to nicotine and many products. However, the vaping industry is once again in a position where disinformation is driving a false narrative that will spin out of control, according to Abboud.
“My perspective is that this is an intentional false flag. If, as asserted, millions and millions of illegally imported disposable vapes are coming into the country laced with fentanyl, where’s the outbreak? This is not something that would just ‘not’ be reported on. And as I’ve said, we looked at the reports, and there is just slim evidence that there is any connection between the fentanyl epidemic and nicotine vaping,” explains Abboud. “The problem, of course, is that we have illicit THC vapes [in] the United States that are the real issue. And given how unforgiving the Chinese government is toward illicit drugs, does anybody really believe [Chinese manufacturers] are going to make THC vapes adulterated with fentanyl and take the risk of being imprisoned or worse in their own country?”
It seems like deja vu all over again. Abboud said that if the vaping industry allows a manufactured crisis that associates fentanyl with nicotine vaping devices to take hold, the entire industry will never recover in the eyes of the consumer. “As soon as you say vaping and fentanyl, consumers will not distinguish between disposables and open systems. They will reduce their risk, and for many, that will, unfortunately, mean a return to smoking,” said Abboud. “As with EVALI, we have hyped and overgeneralized headlines in the media talking about vaping. We have had direct calls for eliminating flavored nicotine in vaping and specifically flavored disposable products.
“And we have regulators who contribute to this misleading narrative, specifically the statement made by the FDA commissioner in front of Congress. The bottom line is that I don’t think this industry gets three strikes. EVALI, strike one. I think this [fentanyl in vape devices] narrative, if it takes hold, the way it appears to be being pushed to take hold is strike two. The vaping industry won’t get a third at-bat.”
The Vapor Technology Association continues its mission to promote sensible regulation.
By Timothy S. Donahue
In many countries, such as the U.K., vaping is synonymous with harm reduction. These governments recognize the harm reduction benefits of vaping versus smoking combustible cigarettes. They actively engage their citizens in “swap to stop” efforts backed by sound policy and known science.
In the U.S., however, the Food and Drug Administration is actively pursuing policies that protect, if not elevate, combustible tobacco products’ status in the marketplace and limit consumer access to alternatives that are safer than cigarettes, according to Tony Abboud, the executive director of the Vapor Technology Association (VTA). Abboud and the VTA have been instrumental in advocating for rational science-based regulations for vaping products that will enable a diverse and robust industry to thrive in the U.S.
Vapor Voice sat down with Abboud to discuss the current state of vaping and the future of the VTA. He said that one needs only look at the fact that the FDA is authorizing combustible tobacco products over less harmful vaping products at a rate of 45:1. This is a huge problem for an evolving and innovative industry but with graver public health consequences.
Vapor Voice: What is the current state of the vaping industry in the U.S. in your opinion?
Tony Abboud, director of the Vapor Technology Association. To learn more about the Vapor Technology Association
Abboud: Today, the U.S. industry remains in unnecessary regulatory chaos due to the FDA’s lack of vision in executing its statutory obligations, loss of focus on its harm reduction mission and reactionary decisions made to ameliorate political pressure of special interest groups untethered from science.
[The] FDA’s obstinate inability or refusal to speak truthfully about the importance of less harmful nicotine alternatives, such as vaping and modern oral nicotine products, is imperiling its clearly articulated mission to end smoking. Specifically, [the] FDA’s actions to date have only driven up the public’s irrational fear of nicotine vaping, a fear that can only cement consumers’ bond with cigarettes.
[The] FDA’s unscientific and dramatic policy shifts (cloaked as case-by-case decision-making) have plunged the agency and the industry into costly and unnecessary litigation that will take years to resolve, and, thus, it will be years before a rational regulated marketplace will exist. The net result is that, rather than creating a clear and achievable pathway for innovative companies to introduce new technologies that are 2 [times] to 3 times more effective at helping people quit smoking than the few products, FDA’s actions will continue to drive a wedge between people who smoke cigarettes that kill and the myriad options that will give them dramatic relief.
It is essential that companies in the industry galvanize behind thoughtful efforts to reset the narrative, demand accountability and make common sense changes. It is equally essential that [the] FDA resets its narrative, unapologetically follows the science and uses its power not to rob Americans looking for alternatives to cigarettes but empower them with myriad attractive options that will entice them to switch.
Now that the Covid shutdown and Zoom calls have ended, what has changed for the VTA?
Organizationally, one of the biggest impacts of Covid was the recognition that we had to focus our efforts on the biggest challenges that needed to be addressed rather than taking on every fight. That refocusing has enabled us to architect a thoughtful and impactful strategy to engage with policymakers and decision-makers on the issues most critical to our industry and to public health.
From a practical perspective, the biggest change in the reopening of this country has been the reopening of congressional offices, which only fully occurred this year. That change has made it possible for our team to sit down across the table this year and have meaningful and essential conversations with congressional offices and to bring voices into the fold that have not been heard before. We are on pace this year to far outstrip our prior levels of congressional engagement with a clear and persuasive policy message not only based on science but also supported by leading tobacco control scientists.
What are the VTA’s goals for 2023?
There are 34 million Americans who still smoke. Every two years, a million of them will die from smoking-related diseases. This is an unconscionable and ongoing public health crisis. We can save tens of thousands of lives by not hiding the fact that vaping is far less risky than smoking.
In this year, our priorities are a set of common sense new marketing standards and smart science-based access restrictions for flavored vape products to ensure such flavored products remain available for adult smokers while less accessible to youth. At the same time, we will continue our constructive engagement with [the] FDA to provide insight on the key policy issues and specific regulatory strategies that are necessary to achieve a rationally regulated marketplace.
What will it take to accomplish these goals?
Despite the FDA’s parroting of its mantra that it “follows the science,” the examples of where it has failed to do so have become too numerous to ignore. And despite the FDA’s proclaimed concerns about misinformation, the examples of which it has engaged in are simply too extreme to believe that the agency can easily correct the course it has embarked upon to denigrate, dismiss and deny alternative nicotine products. Hence, public pressure, congressional oversight and accountability in the courts all are necessary to ensure that FDA adheres to the science, follows the law and corrects the record.
In addition, notwithstanding the dramatic decline in youth vaping (now at pre-“epidemic” levels) that has taken place even with the broad availability of flavored products, the industry must continue to demonstrate its commitment to reducing youth access and appeal by supporting long overdue and common sense marketing restrictions that will further reduce underage use. Additionally, just like with 21-plus legislation, for which the industry advocated, new 21-plus policies can further limit youth access to flavored vaping products.
Given the chaos in the marketplace created by [the] FDA’s past and present actions, and its apparent policy to bar every nontobacco-flavored vape product from the marketplace, congressional action can help calm the chaos by adopting leading tobacco control scientists’ recommendations that flavored vape products be sold in adult-only stores, making them less accessible to youth while preserving the availability of adults. All of our goals and strategies are based on both data and science as we continue to amplify the voice and role of science in the decision-making process.
Is there any hope for open systems and/or flavors?
Yes. Facts are stubborn things. There is no scientific or real-world evidence that youth are attracted to or use open systems in any material numbers. At the same time, data from the National Youth Tobacco Survey year after year proves that flavors are now one of the least cited reasons that youth may experiment with vaping.
And each day, more and more peer-reviewed science is published proving the important role that flavored vaping plays in the decision to switch away from deadly combustible cigarettes, particularly when compared to the FDA’s favorite ineffective solutions. There is also hope in the fact that the industry will continue to innovate.
There will be new technologies that capture the market in the future, and we should be open to that—and so should [the] FDA. Flavors are proven to be the preference for adults who are looking to quit, and adults are more likely to succeed when flavors are available to them. Consumers’ demand for flavored nicotine products should be no more paternalistically rejected than consumers’ demand for cannabis products.
Are nontobacco nicotine products going to gain broad acceptance, especially with regulators?
Well, that is entirely up to the FDA now that Congress was convinced by certain industry players that nontobacco nicotine was somehow a problem. True, it was a problem, but primarily for certain businesses which were dependent on tobacco-derived nicotine. But the reality is that nontobacco nicotine is the cleanest and purest form of nicotine available on the market, which is perfectly replicable and traceable to the batch level.
Nontobacco nicotine is precisely the type of innovation in a constantly changing landscape that should be encouraged as the industry advances toward a combustible-free future. Regulators have a huge opportunity to use their authority to regulate nontobacco (synthetic) nicotine products and to encourage their entry into the marketplace. But, given [the] FDA’s current trend toward eliminating virtually all nicotine alternatives from the market, one can only question whether [the] FDA could seize the opportunity to provide consumers access to products that would allow them to break free from the last vestige of tobacco.
Do you see congressional action as the only cure to the current FDA regulatory process?
Congressional action can help, but the challenges are significant. There are three ways that Congress can assist. The first is through its oversight committees, which have jurisdiction to question the FDA’s prior actions that have been inconsistent with the law and inconsistent with, according to CTP’s [Center for Tobacco Products] scientists, the science on vaping.
The second is through its appropriations committees, which must question exactly how FDA is using the hundreds of millions of dollars it receives, why it uses the majority of its resources to remove e-cigarettes from the market while ushering hundreds of new cigarettes to the market and what could possibly justify its request for another $100 million in fees that ultimately will be borne by the vaping consumer (giving them yet another disincentive to switch).
The third is through committees of jurisdiction that can end the absurd discussion of “ban, ban, ban” when it comes to flavors and instead focus on real solutions to real marketing issues of which vaping opponents have complained for years but have never truly sought to address.
Congressional action is not the only cure because [the] FDA currently has placed its thumb on the scale by creating a standard for companies seeking to comply and secure marketing approval without giving them the knowledge or opportunity to do so. For that reason, [the] FDA appears content with letting the courts sort out the mess that it has created.
After all, CTP appears to take delight in declaring that every vaping product on the market is “illegal” and “cannot be lawfully marketed” except for the small handful of tobacco-flavored products [the] FDA has authorized. So, while regulators often complain about industry lawyers, it should come as no surprise that the actions of prior agency leadership, which in a very short period of time demanded a complete reversal of CTP’s priorities, plans and policies as they related to flavored vaping products, would lead to legal challenges.
In the end, any branch of our federal government can have a major impact in fixing the mess created by a disregard for science and the law. The question now is which one(s) will do so.
The Vapor Technology Association (VTA) celebrated the political currency and success of vaper voters in critical 2024 battleground election states and districts during the recent U.S. elections. According to the trade group, vaper voters helped secure electoral victories for Conservative candidates up and down the ballot.
