Smokers deserve better than a bureaucracy that mistakes prohibition for public health.
Over the past decade, the FDA has poured its energy into policing flavored vapes while leaving smokers with fewer, less appealing alternatives to cigarettes. The result is predictable: a thriving gray market and a regulatory moat that protects the cigarette market that vaping was meant to disrupt. If the goal is fewer smoking deaths, the path is clear: regulate for safety and quality, but stop blocking the smoking cessation tools smokers use.
Flavored vapes are the tool many smokers use to quit cigarettes. That shouldn’t be surprising — while not harmless, vaping has been shown to be far less harmful than smoking. The National Institutes of Health has concluded that vapes expose users to lower levels of toxins than cigarettes, and the Royal College of Physicians in the United Kingdom estimates their health risks are “unlikely to exceed 5 percent of the harm from smoking tobacco.”
Justin Leventhal is a senior policy analyst for the American Consumer Institute, a nonprofit education and research organization. For more information about the Institute, visit www.TheAmericanConsumer.Org or follow us on X @ConsumerPal.