White House Rejects FDA Plans For Flavored E-Cigarettes

Tobacco companies may heave a sigh of relief as the White House has reportedly decided to exclude e-cigarettes from a recent anti-tobacco regulation proposed by The Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

FDA had announced that tobacco makers must seek marketing authorization for any tobacco product introduced after Feb 15, 2007. The law was extended to include e-cigarettes, pipe tobacco, cigars and hookah and was expected to be effective from Aug 2016.

Per the initial proposal submitted by the FDA to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), tobacco manufacturers were allowed a grace period of 90 days to put a ban on flavored products. The grace period also allows tobacco manufacturers to submit marketing applications, during which they can continue to sell their products.

As per the FDA, there has been a dramatic rise in smoking of typically flavored tobacco products like e-cigarettes and waterpipe tobacco among the youth, which might be harmful. Hence, the FDA wanted to restrict flavored e-cigarettes along with tobacco products.

If this plan would have been put into effect, flavored e-cigarettes would have been removed from the market til its makers got authorization from the FDA.

However, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) scrapped the FDA's planned policy of including flavored e-cigarettes in the current law.

Tobacco companies like Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM) , Reynolds American Inc. (NYSE:RAI) and Altria Group Inc. (NYSE:MO) have been penalized for taking recourse to any kind of advertising or packaging that flouts the laws. The global tobacco industry has been facing severe advertising and packaging restrictions on their products for some time.

Meanwhile, the Indian government has imposed plain packaging rules on tobacco makers who are required to cover 85% of the cigarette packets with pictorial warnings in May 2016. Again, during the same period, the European Union (EU) Court of Justice ordered against tobacco companies and banned the use of flavored cigarettes like mint and menthol.

The court ruled that the use of flavor makes cigarettes more attractive. It also stated that reducing the attractiveness of the packaging may help reduce tobacco use and dependence among new and continuing users.