US votes to decimate electronic cigarette industry

A major lobbying effort to save electronic cigarettes from falling victim to US federal regulation has failed, according to a story by Robert King for the Washington Examiner.

King said that a $1.1 trillion spending bill released on Wednesday did not include a rider to change the ‘grandfather’ date in upcoming federal regulations governing electronic cigarettes.

The grandfather date, February 15, 2007, which was originally established by the US Tobacco Control Act of 2009, signalled that any tobacco cigarette on the market before that date would not have to be the subject of burdensome applications for approval by the Food and Drug Administration, whereas those marketed after that date would be subjected to such applications.

Now, as part of its deeming regulations, the FDA has proposed that electronic cigarettes should be subject to the same grandfather date.

The difference is that whereas the tobacco cigarette market was well established with products by 2007, the electronic cigarette market was only just taking off.

So the decision means that a majority of the electronic cigarettes on US shelves will need to undergo burdensome applications that their suppliers are unlikely to be able to afford.

Some observers believe that the FDA requirements will kill off that part of the industry not supplied by the major tobacco manufacturers.

‘Industry insiders have said that the spending bill was the last best hope to address the grandfather date before the regulations were released,’ King wrote.