The Regulatory Review | April 9, 2015
A recent article by Professor Eric N. Lindblom of Georgetown University charts a middle ground: e-cigarette regulation should impose harm-reducing requirements on products and limits on advertising, but e-cigarette sales should still be allowed on a limited basis. According to Lindblom, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) possesses the authority to take this approach, which would help smokers cease smoking without “causing any offsetting public health harms.”
Recognizing that e-cigarettes have both upsides and downsides for public health, Lindblom lays out three goals that a desirable regulatory framework should aim to achieve. First, it should “make e-cigarettes even less harmful to users and non-users.” Second, it should promote the use of e-cigarettes as a tool to quit smoking – or at least as a cigarette substitute for those who cannot break their smoking habits. Finally, it should “minimize e-cigarette use among all other persons.”