Banned from claiming that e-cigs are a stop-smoking aid

Authorities are trying to gain regulatory power over the sale of e-cigarettes. The Food & Drug Administration in the US has now informed e-cigarette companies that any claim that their products help people stop smoking are not legal since they are not scientifically verified:

The warning letters state that all five companies have run ads claiming that their products can be used to help quit smoking. The FDA has determined that the liquid in E-cigarettes is a drug and that the E-cigarettes themselves are drug-delivery devices, which the manufacturers dispute. The FDA says in its letters that it is illegal for the manufacturers to claim their drugs can be used as a smoking cessation treatment without FDA approval first. The agency says the companies have conducted no clinical trials or shown scientific evidence supporting their claims.

This kind of thing must make the public – especially those of the American public who have given up smoking using e-cigarettes – wonder about the purpose of anti-smoking legislation in the US. A few states have actually banned e-cigarettes from sale, citing safety concerns. There is no suggestion anywhere, however, that e-cigs prompt nearly as much concern for safety of users as cigarettes do, and one of their selling points is (unfortunately) that they don't give off secondary smoke.

Banning e-cigarettes, while leaving tobacco on open sale, borders on lunacy. Not only because it is illogical in terms of an anti-tobacco policy, but because it shows how clearly this has to do with controlling the market share in nicotine use and smoking cessation. Clinical trials have not demonstrated convincingly that approved smoking cessation medication effectively stops people smoking. Champix is tainted with well grounded safety concerns, documented by users, and is the subject of lawsuits. Tobacco too clearly raises concerns among policy makers, yet remains legal (rightly so). The only product to be threatened with restrictions is the e-cigarette.

Former smokers, who have turned to electronic cigarettes in New York, New Jersey and other states that have leapt on the e-cigarette banned-wagon have had their choices severely limited. Do they give go back to smoking? Or turn to quit products like nicotine replacement therapy? My guess is that they will realise that their product of choice has been taken off the market for spurious reasons, connected with Control, $$, anything in fact other than health, and regardless whether they go back to smoking tobacco their confidence in the authorities will be severely undermined.

Both formally and informally, data and information on e-cigarette use are still being collected.

Decisions about regulation have yet to be announced in the UK. This link considers the implications of regulating/banning e-cigarettes in the UK.