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Dr. Brian King, director for the Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) at the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), acknowledged a major public health failure in recent commentary in the journal Addiction: Many adults who smoke are unaware of the relative safety of nicotine vapes and other tobacco harm reduction options compared with combustible cigarettes. What he conspicuously failed to acknowledge was his own agency’s role in perpetuating misperceptions that cost lives.

Adolescents and young adults who used cigarettes or e-cigarettes in the previous 7 days had a higher likelihood of experiencing severe and frequent ocular symptoms, according to a study published in JAMA Ophthalmology. As of 2014, e-cigarettes are the most common tobacco product among youth in the United States. Ocular damage and increased risk of eye disease have been found in studies that have evaluated the outcomes of tobacco use. The present study aimed to report the “magnitude of ocular symptoms reported by adolescents and young adults using e-cigarettes only, cigarettes only, and both products.”

A new study conducted by a research team at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Centre in New York has looked at the impact of flavour bans in the United States. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Centre for Tobacco Products (CTP) has been waging a war on e-liquid flavours since it published a document about them in 2020. The researchers discovered that restricting the availability of flavours has been a complete failure. “In the US in 2019, more than 5 million youth were using e-cigarettes, including nearly 1 million using e-cigarettes every day,” the authors write.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) should abandon any efforts to inform the public that vaping is safer than smoking, says the American Lung Association (ALA). Numerous public surveys show a consistent, widespread misperception that vaping nicotine is just as or more dangerous than smoking cigarettes. The problem is so extensive that correcting these false beliefs forms part of the FDA's Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) 5-year strategic plan. 

The largest ever American vape study, conducted by a team at the MUSC Hollings Cancer Centre, has demonstrated the value of ecigs as a smoking cessation aid. The study was conducted due to the debate raging on that side of the Atlantic as to whether vapes should be considered for use as part of smoking cessation programmes. “E-cigarettes contain harmful chemicals, which has led many public health advocates to shun them. But they are less harmful than traditional cigarettes, which can cause a dozen types of cancer as well as heart disease, stroke, diabetes and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease,” says the MUSC Hollings Cancer Centre.

On August 15, Brian King, Director of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Center for Tobacco Products (CTP), acknowledged that there are opportunities for the CTP to educate consumers about the relative risks of tobacco products. By communicating that some tobacco products carry less risk with them than traditional cigarettes—such as electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS), heated tobacco products and oral tobacco products—the burden of smoking-related death and disease could be significantly impacted. [...]

In the early 20th century, Americans demonized alcohol. In 1920, they codified that demonization in the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, prohibiting alcohol. During the roaring ’20s, in American homes and speakeasies all over the land, Americans thumbed their noses at that demonization. As did bootleggers, smugglers and organized crime bosses. In 1933, Americans decided to de-demonize alcohol with the 21st Amendment, making this psychoactive drug — alcohol — legal again.

Earlier in my career, I spent a fair amount of professional time working with companies on U.S. Food and Drug Administration compliance. While I worked on the business side not the government side, I recognized then and now how important it is for us to have an agency tasked with protecting consumers from dangerous products. When that agency is functioning properly, that is. Sadly, today’s FDA is falling down on the job when it comes to enforcing its own regulations regarding illicit flavored disposable products, especially products from China.

A national ban on menthol cigarettes is inching closer. This month, the United States Food and Drug Administration will publish final regulations on the matter, according to the agency’s Spring Regulatory Agenda. The FDA has been considering making the ban effective one-to-two years after publication. A public comment period last year saw 175,000 comments submitted on the proposed menthol cigarette ban, with another 71,000 for a similar restriction on cigars. Based on my review, a majority appear to be against the ban.

“E-cigarettes have been considered a safe means of smoking cessation for combustible cigarettes. However, the evidence of cardiovascular harm of e-cigarettes has been accumulating in recent years, so it is necessary to understand the proportion and trend of e-cigarette use in people with CVD,” said Shanjie Wang, MD, PhD (Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, China), who shares senior authorship on the paper with Yiying Zhang, MD, PhD (Jiamusi University, China).