Yesterday, the Food and Drug Administration in the United States announced new rules stating e-cigarettes will now be subject to the same regulations of traditional tobacco products, a move which will change the face of the multibillion dollar industry, with experts expecting to see 99% of the American e-cigarette market cease to exist.
According to the FDA guidelines, the majority of brands will have to seek federal permission to continue marketing their products, as well as submitting a pre-market application which will evaluate their influence on public health. Companies will now have two years to submit the relevant data, as well as paying FDA user fees. The process is time consuming and expensive, and it is expected that many independent e-cigarette companies will not be able to meet the necessary demands to keep their products on the market place.
The European TPD regulations coming into effect on May 20th take a much lighter approach than the FDA, but there has been similar backlash from some health officials. Both reports from Public Health England and most recently The Royal College of Physicians have shown e-cigarettes to be significantly less harmful than traditional tobacco alternatives, and neither the FDA nor the TPD take into account the positive effects that e-cigarettes are having on the reduction of tobacco consumption which are also detailed in these findings.
There are currently around 2.6 million e-cigarette users in the UK, and studies by both ASH and the Smoking Study Toolkit had confirmed the vast majority are long-term ex-smokers. With e-cigarettes being the most popular method of tobacco cessation in the UK, a boundary on their accessibility could disrupt attempts to encourage more consumers to switch from traditional tobacco to less harmful electronic alternatives.
