US FDA Approves E-Cigarette Product For The First Time

The United States Food and Drug Administration has approved vape supplies for sale for the first time.

In a press release, the FDA announced that it had authorised the sale and marketing of three Vuse e-cigarette products made by tobacco manufacturer R.J. Reynolds, mark a considerable breakthrough for vaping products after examining the implications for public health.

After a year of consideration, the FDA ultimately decided that the benefits of vaping as an aid to stop smoking are sufficient to approve their use, given they reduce a smoker’s exposure to the many harmful chemicals found in tobacco.

A meta-analysis of over 12,000 people trying to quit smoking found that nicotine-containing e-cigarettes were more likely to help people quit than gum, patches and other nicotine replacement therapies, and found no evidence of serious harm using them.

E-cigarettes do not produce carbon monoxide or tar, which are the by-products that cause the most harm in cigarette smoke.

One interesting note is that the three Vuse Solo products were all tobacco-flavoured, and a decision on the products produced by Juul, the market leader in the United States, is still yet to have been released.

Whilst e-cigarette regulation in Europe and the UK has been enforced since at least 2012, there was a long period where e-cigarettes were not regulated in the United States, as the result of a court ruling that they were tobacco products rather than drug-device combinations.

This, in combination with a 2009 piece of legislation meant that the FDA had the authority to regulate some tobacco products but not e-cigarettes until August 2016, when they were given regulatory authority over the industry.