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The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will also require manufacturers to submit products to the agency for review. Cigars, pipe tobacco and hookah tobacco are also subject to the new rules. On Wednesday, California introduced new anti-smoking legislation that also regulates e-cigarettes. E-cigarettes are battery-operated devices that turn flavoured nicotine liquid into an inhalable vapour. They lack the chemicals and tars of tobacco and are widely used by smokers trying to kick the habit. However, the nicotine is addictive.
In a statement, US secretary of health and human services Sylvia Burwell said the announcement was "an important step in the fight for a tobacco-free generation". "It will help us catch up with changes in the marketplace, put into place rules that protect our kids and give adults information they need to make informed decisions," she said. The FDA said that a recent survey showed e-cigarette use among high school students had risen from 1.5% in 2011 to 16% in 2015 and that the use of hookah tobacco had also increased significantly. It said the new rules, which come into effect in 90 days, will require retailers to ask buyers for proof of age and will ban the sale of the products in vending machines. Free samples will also be barred.
Public health advocates welcomed the news. "Ending the tobacco epidemic is more urgent than ever, and can only happen if the FDA acts aggressively and broadly to protect all Americans from all tobacco products," said Harold Wimmer, president of the American Lung Association. In California, Democratic Governor Jerry Brown signed a total of five bills to restrict tobacco use in various ways, including regulating e-cigarettes and expanding funds for anti-smoking programmes. The rules raise the legal age for buying tobacco products in the state from 18 to 21, except for active military personnel. Electronic cigarettes, like traditional ones, will be banned in public spaces across the state.
US announces ban on e-cigarettes for under-18s - BBC News
The FDA announced a plan to regulate e-cigarettes two years ago, but these are the first concrete regulations issued. The new rules affect not only e-cigarettes but more traditional tobacco products, including cigars, pipe tobacco and hookah tobacco. “We have more to do to help protect Americans from the dangers of tobacco and nicotine, especially our youth. As cigarette smoking among those under 18 has fallen, the use of other nicotine products, including e-cigarettes, has taken a drastic leap. All of this is creating a new generation of Americans who are at risk of addiction,” U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell said in a statement today. “Today’s announcement is an important step in the fight for a tobacco-free generation -- it will help us catch up with changes in the marketplace, put into place rules that protect our kids and give adults information they need to make informed decisions," Burwell said.
Federal officials framed the new regulations as a way to take on the rapidly increasing rates of e-cigarette usage among teens. The new regulations will affect the selling, marketing and manufacturing of e-cigarettes and other tobacco products. Newly announced prohibitions on selling e-cigarettes, hookah tobacco and cigars to people under 18 or giving free samples will start to be enforced within 90 days, according to the FDA. Mitch Zeller, director of the Center for Tobacco Products, a part of the FDA, likened the current e-cigarette marketplace to "the wild, wild west," pointing out that there have been reports of e-cigarettes exploding in recent months, causing burns on teens. "Today is a first step, a foundational step, to bring all these previously unregulated products into the world of being regulated," Zeller said during a news conference today.
Health officials have been concerned that teens and other young adults may view e-cigarettes as an alternative to cigarettes with a rising number of teens using e-cigarettes. A recent survey found current e-cigarette use among high school students has risen sharply, from 1.5 percent in 2011 to 16 percent in 2015, according to the FDA and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. An estimated 3 million middle and high school students were current e-cigarette users in 2015, according to the FDA. Data also showed high school boys smoked cigars at about the same rate as cigarettes.
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