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On June 7, 2019 the Food and Drug Administration fired a warning shot across the bows of the vaping industry. It sent notices to four companies using social media to promote their flavoured nicotine blends. That’s because their Watermelon Patch, Strawberry Kiwi and other offerings did not include the standard ‘nicotine is addictive’ health warning. However, once the FDA starts regulating vaping, more will surely follow.
The FDA Starts Regulating Vaping with a New Standard
The FDA also issued a new standard in June entitled Premarket Tobacco Product Applications for Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems. Among other questions, it asks how a new vaping product “would be appropriate for the protection of the public health’.
NBC News reports the FDA and other agencies are “struggling to reverse what they call an epidemic of underage e-cigarette use”. They attribute this to “a surge in online videos, photos and other posts about vaping”. Some of these are by paid teen-culture influencers. However we also believe it’s time the FDA starts regulating vaping in terms of batteries.
Because a Child Had a Blast Injury to His Lower Jaw
Vapers featured in CBC News headlines again on June 19, 2019. This time the drama was more immediate than sparring between the FDA and the vape industry. A teenage boy in rural Ely, Nevada had turned to e-vaping in a hope of weaning himself off tobacco.
He was out the backyard vaping when the battery in the device exploded. “Austin came to me with his hand up to his mouth,” his mum Button told CBC News. “He was in shock and unable to speak.” She drove him to nearest hospital five hours away, “The child had a blast to the lower jaw as well as burns around the lip,” a trauma surgeon recalls. The explosion cracked his jaw through and vaporized the flesh.
We think it’s high time the government got tougher on these devices, and the FDA started regulating vapers more robustly. We would like to see them recalled and the lithium-ion batteries replaced with something else. This is in line with a FDA recommendation “companies should rework their batteries to make them less likely to overheat”.
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