Vapeboss - Throughout the annual E-Cigarette Conference held in Washington, D.C., the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has consistently and poorly communicated the "continuum of risk" of nicotine products. The conference, held on May 17, 2022, was described by Filter as "perhaps the most eclectic conference in tobacco control," and was attended by consumer advocates, vape business owners, tobacco harm reduction researchers, regulators, and industry executives.

For many, this was a rare opportunity to ask questions of policymakers. This year, Matthew Holman, director of the Office of Science at the FDA's Center for Tobacco Products (CTP), and Kathleen Crosby, director of the CTP's Office of Communications and Health Education, were bombarded with questions as to why, despite the FDA finally authorizing some vape products through the premarket tobacco product application (PMTA) process, the public remains unaware of the relative benefits of these products.

Two of the most prominent speakers, David Ashley, former director of the Office of Science at the CTP itself, and Vaughan Rees, director of the Center for Tobacco Control at Harvard, both highlighted and questioned that vaping has played a major role in reducing smoking rates. "What is the ethics of doing that — misleading people to change behavior?"

Synthetic nicotine regulation

Meanwhile, following new legislation enacted on March 15, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) can now regulate tobacco products containing nicotine from any source.

The law took effect on April 14, and requires manufacturers, distributors, importers, and retailers of non-tobacco nicotine (NTN) tobacco products — that is, nicotine not made or derived from tobacco, such as synthetic nicotine — to ensure compliance with applicable requirements under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act) resulting from this legislation, such as:

• Not selling these products to individuals under 21 years of age (both directly and online)
• Not marketing these products as modified risk tobacco products without FDA authorization
• Not distributing free samples of these products.

Source: Vapingpost