Federal policymakers & regulators should find balanced approach to prevent Unregulated Chinese Products from being sold in Smoke Shops, on Online Retail Sites
By J.W. Wintersteen, III
AUSTIN, Texas (Texas Insider Report) — According to the Houston Health Department, in 2019 almost 11% of Houston High Schoolers – and even close to 10% of Houston Middle Schoolers – were using electronic smoking devices. This is a significant increase from around 7% of Houston High School & Middle School Students in 2017.
Disposable vape products make up 55.3% of the devices preferred by youths who currently use e-cigarettes, according to the CDC. The fact that Chinese flavored vape products make up the vast majority of this market is a major concern, given the lack of transparency surrounding their ingredients and potential risks.
But whereas the kid-friendly flavors and bright colored packaging of illicit vape products only serves to get kids hooked on vaping, in adults Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS) have been shown to increase the chances of adults to quit regular use of combustible cigarettes.
A Cochrane Review found a “high certainty that quit rates were higher in people randomized to nicotine EC [electronic cigarettes] than in those randomized to nicotine replacement therapy (NRT).”This is important because adult ENDS products can be a powerful tool for tobacco harm reduction.
As Dr. Colin Mendelsohn, MB BS (Hons) has written in the journal CHEST,
“Evidence from randomized controlled trials, population studies, and better-quality observational studies shows that e-cigarettes are effective quitting aids.”
It seems clear that federal policymakers and regulators should find a balanced approach that prevents unregulated Chinese products from being sold in smoke shops and on online retail sites while also permitting adult use of market authorized ENDS products.
It seems clear that federal policymakers and regulators should find a balanced approach that prevents unregulated Chinese products from being sold in smoke shops and on online retail sites while also permitting adult use of market authorized ENDS products.
The irony is that this actually is the policy of the Food & Drug Administration. It’s just not being applied in practice.
The FDA is charged with enforcement against illicit Chinese products, but their enforcement policy has been less than inspiring – just a few hundred warning letters over 10 years to companies that market illicit ENDS products. Apart from that, the FDA has taken no serious action.
At the same, they’re failing to reduce death and disease by providing adult smokers with less harmful regulated alternatives.
All this has sparked U.S. House Oversight & Accountability Committee Chair James Comer to remark,
“If products are allowed to go to market or stay on the market without authorized applications, then the entire regulatory effort would appear to be pointless.”
It’s time for Congress to step up its oversight of the FDA with respect to ENDS regulatory enforcement. It’s not as though a few warning letters are going to frighten off illicit Chinese vape manufacturers. They’re not going to suddenly stop marketing to children because of a tersely worded letter from a mid-level federal bureaucrat.
Congressman Dan Crenshaw and his fellow Members of Congress should inquire why the FDA is failing to enforce its own regulations when it comes to illicit vape marketing and distribution from China.
They should then demand a new plan of action from federal regulators to get illicit products off store shelves and out of the hands and mouths of America’s youth.Jacob "JW" Wintersteen, III lives in Houston, Texas.
