FDA Should Follow Science, Allow Vaping

The Surgeon General released his first report indicating that smoking was bad for human health in 1964. Since then, further studies have identified greater health risks. Today, science indicates that smoking cigarettes damages a person’s entire body. That means federal policy should focus on getting people to quit as quickly as possible.

One way to do that is to encourage smokers to switch to vaping. It may not be perfectly healthy either, but vaping has far fewer health risks than burning tobacco does. It delivers the nicotine hit that smokers crave without the tar, organ damage and premature aging that comes with cigarettes.

The Trump administration’s recent shift towards a science-based authorization process stands to benefit millions of adult smokers who are looking for a safer alternative. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized four flavored e-cigarettes from Glas Inc for sale and issued guidance that will allow similar products to stay in stores while the FDA reviews them, ensuring products adults use to quit combustible cigarettes remain accessible. That approach fits squarely within the administration’s Make America Healthy Again agenda. Smoking remains the leading cause of preventable death and a primary driver of the chronic disease burden MAHA was built to confront — heart disease, COPD, and cancer chief among them. Keeping proven alternatives on shelves, rather than pushing former smokers back to cigarettes or into an unregulated illicit market, is one of the fastest ways to move those numbers.