Food and Drug Administration (FDA) proposed a rule that would have eliminated flavors from tobacco products. In 2015, during my tenure as Commissioner, the U.S. How young people became addicted to vaping ![]() Iniquitous marketers devised a system of targeted digital advertising combined with the establishment of local “vape shops” that could mix the ingredients and sell them in a social environment resembling a coffee shop, thus becoming one of the fastest growing small businesses in the United States. ![]() Unfortunately, the technology also enabled the addition of ingredients with attractive smells and tastes, making the vaping experience that much more appealing. But the use of such products threatened to produce an epidemic of nicotine addicts, particularly if the concentration of profoundly addictive nicotine reaching the lungs, and therefore the brain, could be optimized. Without the toxic and carcinogenic combustion substances produced in cigarettes, e-cigarettes were deemed healthier, and could be used by cigarette smokers as a way to wean themselves from their nicotine addiction. In the early 2000s, Chinese medical researcher Hon Lik patented the e-cigarette as a way to help cigarette smokers quit the habit. ![]() But as we discussed in the first part of this series, the federal government’s ability to regulate a substance that is neither safe nor effective for health is complicated by the laws that protect the public’s right to consume legal but potentially addictive or dangerous substances.Īs with other tobacco products, understanding the history of vaping products in this context is instructive. If vaping products were considered a drug, this would almost certainly have occurred by now. Editor’s note: The opinions expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the AAMC or its members.Īs an epidemic of acute lung injury and death associated with the use of vaping products continues to sweep the nation, public health advocates have called on the federal government to restrict the sale of these products until the cause of the outbreak is discovered.
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