Bizarre FDA vaping retail restrictions more likely to do harm than good

[Marianna]

 

Caught in its auto-induced moral panic about the teen vaping epidemic, the FDA has decided that it would be better if certain vaping products were harder to get hold of than cigarettes, and the ones that were easiest to get hold of should be the ones most like cigarettes – tobacco and menthol flavour. This seems entirely mad to me and riddled with the potential for unintended consequences that would increase smoking in both adults and adolescents.

Needless to say, FDA has not acknowledged or assessed possible unintended consequences – yet these are likely to overwhelm any possible benefits.

So I decided to put in a comment on the measures on that theme. First, some background then my comment.

 

What is FDA proposing?
FDA intends to prioritize enforcement for lack of a marketing authorization against (in practice this means ‘prohibit’) flavoured ENDS products (other than tobacco-flavoured, mint-flavoured, and menthol-flavoured ENDS products) for:

 

- Products sold in locations that minors are able to enter at any time  – so that would include all regular shops, convenience stores, gas stations etc;
- Products sold through retail establishments and online retail locations that have sold to minors after issuance of the guidance
- Products sold online with no limit on the quantity that a customer may purchase within a given period of time; or
- Products sold online without independent, third-party age- and identity-verification services that compare customer information against third-party data sources, such as public records.

 

Verder:  https://www.clivebates.com/bizarre-fda-vaping-retail-restrictions-more-likely-to-do-harm-than-good/