A Public Participation Forum for the FDA Center for Tobacco Products and its Federal Advisory Committee (TPSAC)

From: CNN Tech

Apple’s product lineup may extend beyond cars and the connected home. A patent filed last year and published January 26 reveals a concept for a vaporizer.

The details are a bit hazy — that is, Apple’s (AAPL, Tech30) patent only describes “a substance that is to be vaporized or sublimated into a vapor,” not what the substance might be. The patent, filed by Apple employee Tetsuya Ishikawa, outlines plans for a temperature-regulated plate inside a chamber that heats up a substance to form a vapor.

From: NACS The Association for Convenience and Retailing

The documents may be applicable to NACS members who engage in tobacco sales.

WASHINGTON – In recent days, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued draft guidance documents with respect to certain prohibitions on free tobacco samples and on the application of certain tobacco regulations on Vape Shops. The draft guidance documents may be applicable to NACS members who engage in tobacco sales, including sales of e-cigarettes and other recently deemed tobacco products.

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From: PennLive.com

Surprisingly, the FDA’s finalized regulations that will ban the sale of all currently marketed vapor products on August 8, 2018 will actually threaten the lives of millions of vapers and tens of millions of smokers. Electronic cigarettes could be the best harm reduction strategy we’ve seen in quitting tobacco use since–well cold turkey.

Government regulators understandably are worried about flavorings in e-cigarettes, but the “flavorings” are ubiquitous in many of our consumable products. They cite animal experiments that claim nicotine can alter development of the cerebral cortex and the hippocampus in adolescents. There are no human studies supporting either assertion, however, and the basic science literature does not corroborate worriment about nicotine (available over-the-counter, in patches and in gum).

The FDA Center for Tobacco Products has released a Final Rule, “Clarification of When Products Made or Derived From Tobacco Are Regulated as Drugs, Devices, or Combination Products” which intends “to describe the circumstances in which a product made or derived from tobacco that is intended for human consumption will be subject to regulation as a drug, device, or a combination product. . . .”

Whether the Rule achieves its goal remains to be seen. The clarifications to the deeming Rule state,

From: The Daily Caller | Opinion

Lekshmi Nair, Manager, Centre for Comparative Studies

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During the WHO’s recently concluded legislative session on tobacco control, the Conference of the Parties to the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in India, delegates adopted a declaration to pursue banning or heavily regulating e-cigarette in more than 180 countries.

This decision, however, wasn’t based in science or in health concerns. It was a one-sided decision that risks depriving smokers of safer alternatives to quit smoking.

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From: Forbes

Sally Satel, CONTRIBUTOR

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As a new year begins, I hope that the incoming decision-makers at the Department of Health and Human Services, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Centers for Disease Control will embrace tobacco harm reduction as a public health strategy to be championed, not stymied.

Last year, unfortunately, was one of disappointment. The FDA dealt a dangerous blow to the health of about 37 million adult smokers with burdensome deeming regulations that established its jurisdiction over vaping products. Expensive, time-consuming and often vague, the mandates are poised to endanger the smaller vaping companies that account for much of the innovation in the industry. Already two companies have gone into bankruptcy.