FDA to regulate e-cigarettes with synthetic nicotine

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) now has oversight to regulate e-cigarette products from vaping companies operating under a loophole that was closed by a new law.

 

The law, which took effect Thursday, gives the FDA authority to regulate e-cigarettes and other products that use synthetic nicotine, a move that targets vaping companies that use manufactured nicotine to circumvent FDA regulation and sell the products to teenagers.

 

“As I’ve said before, this law closes the ‘loophole’ some tobacco product manufacturers have exploited to bypass FDA’s regulatory authority,” FDA Commissioner Robert Califf wrote in a tweet. “We’ll hold e-cigarette companies using synthetic nicotine to the same public health standards we’ve implemented for other tobacco products.”

 

The news comes after Congress passed a bipartisan provision last month that gave the FDA authority to regulate synthetic nicotine products.

 

The new law does not ban e-cigarettes and other similar products but brings them under the same level of oversight as e-cigarettes that contains nicotine from tobacco. The law prohibits selling the products to people under the age of 21 and prohibits marketing them as modified risk tobacco products without the FDA’s authorization.