THE interests of cigarette-makers
and regulators rarely align. To date, most rules have been bad news for Big
Tobacco. Change came on May 5th, when America’s Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) announced new requirements for electronic cigarettes.
The vapour industry is small—less
than 0.1% of the tobacco market—but expanding fast. Global sales grew 11 times
over in the five years to 2014, according to Euromonitor, a data firm. In
America sales soared even more rapidly. To some, that raises an exciting
prospect. E-cigarettes might help smokers inhale nicotine without the deadly
stuff that comes from burning tobacco. On April 28th Britain’s Royal College of
Physicians argued that e-cigarettes could help prevent death and disease.
Yet e-cigarettes are not totally
harmless. Nicotine seems to meddle with the development of adolescent brains,
for example. Some vapour devices deliver dangerous chemicals, including
formaldehyde. The evidence for e-cigarettes’ broad effects is still slight.
Smokers may give up traditional cigarettes for electronic ones, but teenagers
may do the opposite.
This month regulations in America
and Europe were settled, after years of debate. To be effective, the rules
should serve three goals: promote a basic standard of quality, nudge
tobacco-smokers to try the electronic kind and discourage non-smokers,
particularly children, from taking up e-cigarettes. The new rules, however, do
something rather different.
On May 4th the European Court of
Justice upheld a broad set of tobacco regulations. E-cigarette-makers must,
among other things, notify regulators before they introduce a new product; cap
nicotine levels; and warn users of nicotine addiction. John Britton of the
Royal College of Physicians supports quality control, but says limiting
nicotine may make e-cigarettes less appealing to tobacco-smokers.
The FDA goes further.
Uncontroversially, it bans the sale of e-cigarettes to children. In 2011, 1.5%
of teenagers had smoked an e-cigarette in the past 30 days; in 2015, 16% had.
More incendiary, e-cigarettes that were not on the market in 2007—that is,
almost all of them—must be approved by the FDA as “appropriate for the
protection of the public health”. Products still unapproved by August 8th 2019
must be pulled from store shelves.
The FDA goes further.
Uncontroversially, it bans the sale of e-cigarettes to children. In 2011, 1.5%
of teenagers had smoked an e-cigarette in the past 30 days; in 2015, 16% had.
More incendiary, e-cigarettes that were not on the market in 2007—that is,
almost all of them—must be approved by the FDA as “appropriate for the
protection of the public health”. Products still unapproved by August 8th 2019
must be pulled from store shelves.
Under this standard, the FDA may
indeed protect Americans from the perils of e-cigarettes. But the agency also
shelters Big Tobacco. Because it will be costly to bring new devices to market,
the rules will discourage product tweaks that might prompt smokers to ditch
tobacco in favour of e-cigarettes. Large tobacco firms also may be the only
ones with the resources to apply at all.
Cigarette-makers have started
selling vapour products. Reynolds American markets Vuse, for example; Altria’s
Nu Mark sells MarkTen and Green Smoke. Combustible cigarettes still account for
the vast majority of Big Tobacco’s sales and profits. That leaves the vapour
market in an awkward position. E-cigarettes may help smokers give up tobacco;
but the vapour market may well be run by firms keen to sell it.
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