Tobacco regulation should make it easier to quit smoking, not harder. Cigarettes, the product responsible for the overwhelming majority of tobacco-related disease, remain widely available, while less harmful alternatives such as vaping face flavor bans and one of the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) most restrictive approval processes. The result is a system that makes it harder for smokers to quit, compromising public health instead of protecting it.
As of May, the FDA had authorized 45 e-cigarette products, also known as vapes, for sale. When it finally authorized its first non-tobacco and non-menthol flavored vaping products this year, the approval came with extraordinary conditions including random biometric checks. Cigarettes require no comparable surveillance.
Regulating vaping more harshly than smoking makes little sense given what is known about the relative risks of the products. Vaping is not harmless, and people who do not use nicotine should not start. But it is the burning of tobacco, not the nicotine that tobacco contains, that is responsible for much of the catastrophic health damage associated with cigarettes.
Justin Leventhal is a Senior Policy Analyst for the American Consumer Institute, a nonprofit education and research organization that advocates for consumers through evidence-based analysis and data. Follow Justin on X @JustinLeventhal