Justin Meier tries new flavors at a Bloomington vape shop in this photo from January. Staff photo by Jeremy Hogan
Public health officials see the Food and Drug Administration’s new authority to regulate electronic cigarettes as a step forward in the battle against nicotine use.
Some vape shop owners, however, say the new regulations keep current and potential e-cigarette users away from a goal their industry shares with the FDA: smoking cessation.
“Eventually, it will catastrophically affect the e-cigarette business,” said Dennis Elkins, owner of MAXX Electronic Cigarettes, which has two stores in Bloomington. “The little guys, they won’t be able to stand.”
On Thursday, the FDA finalized the rule extending its purview to include electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS), cigars, pipe tobacco, hookah tobacco and nicotine gels.
Over the next several years, e-cigarettes, vape pens, nicotine-laced liquid commonly referred to as “juice” and other such products will need to be registered and reviewed by the FDA, as will all future tobacco-related products.
“There’s so much variability in the kinds of substances that are put into these cartridges, that are put into these vaping devices,” said Jim Wolf, program coordinator for Indiana’s FDA tobacco inspection program. “The way it stands right now, we just have no idea how strong the dose of nicotine is and whether the nicotine is mixed with who knows what.”
The law, which will go into effect in 90 days, bans anyone younger than 18 from purchasing these tobacco products and requires product packaging to include new, uniform warning statements about the health risks associated with nicotine use.
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