This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
ACP proposes e-cigarette regulations
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
As e-cigarettes are becoming more popular but data of their effects are limited, the American College of Physicians proposed regulations concerning the use of electronic nicotine delivery systems in a position paper recently published in Annals of Internal Medicine.
According to the ACP, global sales of electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) are projected to exceed $50 billion in the next 15 years. Additionally, the amount of high school students who never used tobacco but have tried ENDS tripled from 2011 to 2013.
“Despite the widespread popularity and availability of ENDS, little is known about the direct and second-hang long-term effects of their use or their potential as a smoking cessation aid,” Ryan A. Crowley, BSJ, from the health and public policy committee of the ACP, wrote. “The College supports strong regulations to ensure product safety and transparency, policies that prevent use among young people, increased research to better determine their health effects, strong limits on marketing and promotion to discourage interest among young people, and application of indoor air laws to protect the health of bystanders.”
To address the increasing issue related to ENDS-use in adults and adolescents, the ACP issued the following recommendations:
- The FDA should monitor ENDS through the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act which requires product packaging to be childproof, labeled with health warnings and not available for sale to children or adolescents under the age of 18 because of the products’ potentially harmful toxins, including ethylene glycol.
- All characterizing flavors, such as chocolate, bubble gum and Belgian waffle, that appeal to younger populations should be banned.
- ENDS devices and liquid nicotine should be taxed and local governments granted authorization to raise taxes for ENDS products higher than state levels to further hinder their use, particularly among children and adolescents.
- Television ads and other promotion and marketing restrictions pertaining to combustible cigarettes should be applied to ENDS while media and school officials raise awareness of the harms associated with ENDS in their tobacco-prevention efforts.
- Public establishments, specifically those indoor, should ban the use of ENDS with the support of federal, state and local legislation based on study outcomes that suggest the products’ aerosol may be harmful to bystanders and children.
- Federal agencies should conduct further research on the effects of ENDS as an aid for smoking cessation, its chemical content, dual-use habits (ENDS plus combustible cigarettes usage) and the developmental effect it has on children and adolescents.
In its paper, ACP noted that the proposed regulations are intended to be used as guidance for policymakers, not medical providers. – by Stephanie Viguers
Disclosure: Crowley reports no relevant financial disclosures.
Collapse
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts