With so many e-cig makers, the FDA has begun taking action in serious research on the vapor revolution. With $270 million dollars set aside to fund some 50 scientific individual studies, it is about to uncover a lot of facts that will give them factual reasons to regulate specific areas of E-Cigarette manufacturing, selling and use.
Is E-Cigarette re-glamorizing smoking making it a potential lure on minors? Does it pose a danger when used on a long-term basis? Are high voltage and high wattage devices as safe as the low wattage E-Cig devices? These are just a few of the questions that FDA need answered so this health watchdog would able to do its job well.
FDA: The big bad wolf?
The industry can regard this regulatory body the toughest opponent to beat if the studies on e-cigarettes will reveal substantiated facts and reasons to regulate manufacturing, distribution, and use. The prospect indeed looks concerning if you are a business owner in this industry. An impending doom and gloom of possible taxes and fees are constantly speculated by smaller companies in the community. On a positive note, the results of the studies can be used to improve product, and be able to help the smokers quit in a healthy way. After all, this is what vaping is all about.
Additionally, I don’t think the American public would want the Food and Drug Administration to stand by and let e-cig and e-liquid manufacturers operate in the dark. Beyond possible health issues for long term users, a good quality product remains important and nicotine and ingredients used are nothing to skip over. Having a scientific basis is the proper way to undertake regulation; the results can point them in the right direction for a fail-proof safe process in order to offer the public nothing but the best quality hardware and juice for vaping.
The Urgency of the Matter
To those thinking that the $270 million taxpayers’ money can go to something more important, here is a food for thought. Several of these studies, according to Dr Suchitra Krishnan-Sarin of Yale University, leader of four of the 50 E-Cigarette studies, should have been done “yesterday.” With most of the results being still to be generated in 2 – 4 years from now. I am not saying that I think there may be serious danger down the road, but that there simply is no other way to put the questions to rest. Once we have enough long term studies, opinions, speculations, and misguiding studies will no longer have any part of these discussions.
Think of how fast the industry is skyrocketing at the moment; it can grow easily from its current $3 billion status to a whopping 11-figure industry (that’s tens of billions of dollars). Consider the impact on health if it has harmful effects that were not earlier discerned. It really makes no sense regulating E-Cigarettes when there are no enough bases for making decisions. This is why FDA must rush the order on these scientific studies.
Safe or Not?
The basic premise to making the switch is to wean away from the harmful effects that smoking cigarettes bring. Electronic cigarettes are widely viewed as a quit smoking device that offers smokers an easy way to do that, but companies are not yet allowed to market them as cessation devices. Instead, e-cigs are simply currently marketed as an alternative to smoking. Is it a safe alternative even when it is used on a long-term basis? We don’t have all the answers yet, but with proper science and time, we will.
This is the most basic question that needs to be answered. Many parallel studies are going on as the industry, the consumers and the public health advocates wait on the FDA results. While most have honorable intentions, be warned though. You do not want results to be influenced by interest groups, find outwho is funding the study.
Funding $270 million on some 50 separate studies about E-Cigarettes is a clear signal that FDA is not about to regulate this industry using baseless standards. Brace up for what FDA will unravel.