Are e-cigarettes, a twenty-first century fad, really healthier than ordinary cigarettes? We find that hard to believe, and that is why we are glad to see policies finally falling into place to protect consumers, and minors, from the health risks popular e-cigarettes may pose.
Last week, the Food and Drug Administration announced a plan for regulating e-cigarettes that includes warning labels on e-cigarette packaging, banning e-cigarette sales to minors and making health-related claims in its ads, according to USA Today.
Before the FDA’s ruling, there was little regulation of electronic cigarette products at the federal level, and FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg called the recent policy shift, “an important moment for consumer protection.”
We support the FDA’s move mostly because, frankly, we are frustrated that regulations weren’t already in place.
It seems the FDA’s plan is partly aimed at deterring minors from smoking. There has long been some speculation that cigarette smoking in general can serve as a gateway to other, harder habits. We don’t necessarily buy into that, but it seems reasonable, with that in mind, to protect minors from freely consuming a product similar to traditional cigarettes, no matter how awesome the flavors of e-cigarettes may be.
Critics of e-cigarettes have raised concerns about the wide variety of flavors available, from chocolate and cotton candy to bubble gum. Studies have shown that, yes, minors are widely consuming e-cigarettes, and some have inferred that the fun flavors have played a role in encouraging that trend.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, almost 10 percent of high school students have tried e-cigarettes, and other CDC statistics show that growing numbers of middle school children are following suit. We think it’d a no-brainer that e-cigarettes should not be sold to minors, but so far nothing has stopped e-cigarette manufacturers from targeting youths and selling their products to minors.
Although there may be some reason to believe that e-cigarettes can provide a healthier alternative to standard tobacco products, without more research, we don’t think that e-cigarettes should be allowed to advertise such claims. Who knows, perhaps the long-term effects of e-cigarettes will be worse than traditional tobacco products.
Despite FDA plans, e-cigarette manufacturers are still allowed to advertise on television and can be sold on the internet, where people of any age can buy them, according to an article in Forbes. Of course, it is still up for debate whether e-cigarettes are effective in helping people quit smoking, as some studies claim.
We view the FDA’s plan as a step in the right direction, but we still think there is a lot of work to be done. We would like to see more in-depth research about the short- and long-term health effects of e-cigarettes.