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Big Tobacco ask for ban on "Vaping Products"

brian yaeger

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Big Tobacco ask for ban on "Vaping Products"
Posted by brian yaeger on 9/8/2014 to Electronic Cigarette News & Story's
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BIG TOBACCO LOOKING TO OUST ELECTRONIC CIGARETTES

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Once again Big Tobacco is at it again. Reynolds American INC. submitted a 132 page report to the FDA stating that it would be a wise decision to ban all vapor products from manufacturing and sale. They did not however include traditional e-cigs or “ciga-likes” as part of their submission to the FDA.

This just screams greed to me. It comes as no surprise though that the tobacco companies would do such a thing. The fact is that they are way behind the curve when it comes to competing with all the vapor products you and me have come so much to love.

The vape products which generally include a tank, battery, and flavor of your choice are referred to as an “open-system format” and are gradually taking over the electronic cigarette marketplace which is probably raising great concern inside the Big 3 otherwise known as Big Tobacco.

A Reynolds spokesman named David Howard was quoted as saying “We believe FDA should not allow such products to be sold or marketed. He also when on to say that “We believe open-system vapor products create unique public health risks.

He did not stop there. He also said “These systems are highly subject to adulteration and tampering, they are manufactured largely overseas in facilities that would, as proposed, fall outside regulatory inspection and oversight, and many nicotine liquids are sold in non-child-resistant packaging in flavors that may be appealing to youth.”

Now I get what he is saying, but isn’t that why electronic cigarettes are being place under a regulatory agency. Placing such products under the FDA umbrella is supposed to relieve all those concerns, right?

As stated before this comes to no surprise to me. This is just another attempt for them to further dominate the market with their own version of electronic cigarettes or so called “Vaping Devices”.

This also raises great concern to me as a vendor of vaping supplies because what if the powers that be decide that Reynolds has a valid point. This would be a crushing blow to my business and many others like me.

The president of the American Vaping Association fought back at Reynolds by stating “R.J. Reynolds’ call for the FDA to ban the majority of e-cigarette products should be seen for what it really is — an admission that it simply cannot compete in the current e-cigarette market.

“Recent market reports show that while sales of open-system e-cigarette products and e-liquid are booming, sales of closed-system cigarette lookalikes – the kind that Reynolds sells – have stagnated.

We all know the E-cig market is booming and that there is a whole lot at stake. Just last year alone the market produced close to 2 billion in revenue and is only expected to grow in future years. The projected amount by 2017 is upwards of 10 billion. That is nothing to shake your finger at.

The World Health Organization has also expressed concerns stating that the ability to manipulate products and the strength of e-liquids has not been yet evaluated. They also said that there simply has not been enough time to conduct a full realm of scientific research as to whether or not e-cigs will cause health problems like cancer and other unknowns.

Reynolds however at the same time is now introducing to the market their new brand of closed-format e-cigs called Vuse. They also plan to begin selling the well-known brand Blu-eCigs as part of a takeover deal from the company Lorillard INC. that has a staggering price tag of 27.4 billion dollars.

A Reynolds spokeswoman bragged about their new brand to the public as being a “game changer” to the industry.

She was also quoted as saying “I think that what you’ve seen is as consumers have tried a lot of these e-cigarettes that aren’t satisfying, this has driven a lot of the growth of what we call tanks,” Cameron said.

“The growth of those is driven by the consumer’s desire to get satisfaction. If you’re not getting satisfaction out of the e-cigarette format because you’re not getting the nicotine that you want, then if you go to those tanks, you can figure out how much nicotine you want, right. You fill it yourself.

“Our position is really that these open tanks are really not appropriate. And the reason for that is because people can put whatever they want to in those tanks, and this is a lot of the public outcry. People are putting a lot of things other than nicotine into these pipes.

I think what she really meant to say is that Reynolds position on the matter is that they want to create as much turmoil around the industry thereby creating as much profit for them to live in the Bahamas. At least, that what I got out of her statements.

The fact is that most of these products are at best crap. Ciga-likes plain out suck. No pun intended. They are by no means satisfying. Most ex-smokers enjoy the clouds they are used to creating from traditional cigarettes and moving on they would like to see the same effect. It gives them a sense of smoking the real thing but at the same time alleviating themselves from the addiction.

Lorillard did mention in their 132 page submission to the FDA that electronic cigarettes do hold the potential to advance public health dramatically. So what is their argument really about? It’s pretty plain to see.

The report also went on to say that “In fact, an international expert panel recently estimated that electronic cigarettes have only 4 percent of the maximum relative harm of conventional cigarettes, suggesting that substitution of electronic cigarettes for conventional cigarettes is likely to provide a significant public health benefit.”

“Lorillard recognizes that reasonable regulation can help foster product quality and consistency, as well as responsible marketing to ensure that the public health benefits of this product category are fulfilled.”

That’s exactly my point. “REASONABLE REGULATION,” not an all-out abolishment of all vapor products on the market. Medical Science has already proved that electronic cigarettes are a much healthier alternative to traditional cigarettes.

Only time will tell whether or not the FDA regulations will be in fact fair to the industry but the past chairman of the Coalition on Smoking and Health stated that he expects for the FDA to enforce strict regulations in the near future on electronic cigarettes or vapor devices.

In conclusion, this is all a well-played a methodically thought out game by the Big 3 to produce annual revenue that me or you would cry about. That being said I just hope that in the near future there will be some substantial oversight of these greedy companies and what they are trying to do to companies like mine.
 

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