DNC Chair Mistakenly Claims that Cole Amendment Will Make it Harder to Regulate E-Cigarettes

Last week, during the mark-up of the FY17 Agriculture appropriations bill, Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL)--who is Chair of the Democratic National Committee--argued that passage of an amendment (the Cole amendment) that would prohibit the FDA from requiring pre-market applications for e-cigarettes that are currently on the market would "make it harder to regulate this product."The proposed FDA deeming regulations would require every electronic cigarette product on the market to submit a pre-market application in order to remain on the market. Such an application, which would take an estimated 5000 hours to prepare and would cost more than $300,000 per product, is not only unduly burdensome but is virtually impossible for any small business to complete successfully. The effect of the regulations would be to decimate the e-cigarette industry, eliminating all but the largest of companies from remaining in the vaping business. This would have a chilling effect on the sales and growth of vaping products, and would protect a continuing stream of high cigarette sales.The Cole amendment would remove this requirement for e-cigarettes currently on the market to submit a pre-market application, thus allowing current products to remain on the market and preventing the destruction of the vaping industry. It would also help maintain lower rates of smoking by ensuring that the hundreds of thousands of ex-smokers who quit using e-cigarettes will continue to have access to the...
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs