The FDA has held their workshop on what to do about e-cigs, they invited comments and if you click here, the link will take you through to a new page, where you can download the document that TWEL have submitted via their lawyers with comments and suggestions.
In Feb of this year, 2011, Totally Wicked won a court case against the FDA (they wanted to impound our stock), and partly as a result, e-cigs are not considered drug delivery devices, they are considered tobacco products. All well and good, but the FDA’s next move is to try and move e-cigs into the category of ‘Modified Risk Tobacco Products’. To be in the MRTP category they would be alongside combustible and tobacco leaf containing products –which e-cigs are not. This would definitely be a case of comparing apples to oranges.
apples to oranges
So campers, we are yet again asking for your aid and assistance to keep the e-cigs available for the general public. We need the FDA to make a paradigm shift in their thinking and take into consideration all that we know about electronic cigarettes to date, and what they are NOT.
You might be asking why you should bother to help, why should you get involved? Can we suggest the mere freedom to vape, the freedom to choose who supplies your electronic cigarette, and the freedom where to spend your dollar could be at stake?
The Vapers of America need you to take action and get involved – by picking up a pen (remember the pen is far mightier than the sword) and write to the FDA on behalf of Totally Wicked, and re-iterate the existing scientific knowledge that leans towards harm reduction and innovation. We need you to help the vaping community and to point the FDA in the right direction.
Why on behalf of Totally Wicked though? – Why not as concerned of Minnesota or Washington? Because TW has clout – we have a strong name and a good reputation and we won in court against the FDA –and if we can show that our customers are as committed as we know you are – this will lend more weight to the argument. Plus the FDA are OBLIGATED to listen to and read what you have to say, so let’s give them lots to read and chew over.
What would we suggest you write? That e-cigs should be put in their own category –they are not combustibles, nor are they tobacco leaf products like snus or snuff, they are e-cigs, innovative and unique and need to be legislated as such, and that existing clinical evidence of the constituents of e-liquid are taken into consideration.
Please make your voice heard in this debate. Write to the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products and encourage it to treat electronic cigarettes differently than traditional cigarettes, encourage it to establish regulations that do not treat electronic cigarettes like traditional combustible and tobacco leaf-containing products. Write to them at the following address:
Center for Tobacco Products (CTP)
U.S. Food and Drug Administration
9200 Corporate Boulevard
Room 130T
Rockville, Maryland 20850
