Denver health officials and a national electronic-cigarette retailer with plans to enter the metro area agreed Thursday that the Food and Drug Administration’s first steps in regulating the battery-powered nicotine-delivery devices fell surprisingly short of expectations.
“Sometimes change has to be incremental, but they should have gone further,” said Dr. Barry Make, a lung specialist with National Jewish Health, a leading respiratory hospital.
With no federal oversight so far, e-cigarettes have grown into a $2 billion industry, partly through manufacturers touting their role in helping 42 million American smokers kick the tobacco habit.
The FDA’s proposed rule
would extend the agency’s authority over other products, such as pipe tobacco, cigars, hookah and nicotine gels, as well as e-cigarettes — battery-operated tubes that turn liquid nicotine and other chemicals into an aerosol that is inhaled.
The new regulations would ban the sale of e-cigarettes, cigars and pipe tobacco to those under 18 years old and require buyers to prove their age. It would require manufacturers to register with the FDA, provide detailed ingredients lists, disclose manufacturing methods, release scientific data and open plants to inspectors.
Regulation could stifle e-cigarette innovation, but the industry needs regulation, said Chip Paul, founder of Palm Beach Vapors, an e-cigarette retailer in eight states that plans to open a corporate store in the Denver area this summer.
Paul said the Tulsa, Okla., company intends to launch four franchise stores in the metro area over the next 18 months. “I was a little shocked that the FDA didn’t go further,” Paul said. “We really think regulation is validation of the product. It’s an aid to help people quit smoking.”
The FDA said e-cigarettes have not been fully studied and consumers don’t know of potential risks when used as intended.
“It’s a good step for the FDA. Right now, it’s really the Wild West out there. But we need to go further,” said Amy Lukowski, a psychologist at National Jewish Health and clinical director of its telephonic counseling to help people quit smoking. National Jewish runs quit lines for 11 states, including Colorado.
So far, there is no mention of restricting marketing of electronic cigarettes on television, although tobacco cigarettes have been banned from television since 1971.
“We’ve been re-normalizing smoking to the world by having these images on television,” Lukowski said.
Electa Draper: 303-954-1276, edraper@denverpost.com or twitter.com/electadraper
