A U.S. House of Representative committee voted to amend an agricultural funding bill on Tuesday that would ease the regulatory clearance proposed by the Food and Drug Administration.
Under the current FDA proposal, all e-cigarettes and vapor products produced after Feb. 15, 2007 would have to comply with regulatory standards. This means, e-cigarettes are being deemed similar to tobacco devices, and can companies can only market new products if it passes the FDA's safety standards review. According to The Hill, a single product application would cost around $330,000.
The e-cigarette industry finds the regulation excessively stringent and would cause economic doom for some companies.
The House Appropriations Committee voted 31-19 on Tuesday to make it easier for e-cigarette companies to apply for regulatory clearance.
"What happened today is a big boost of momentum for the industry," said Arnaud Dumas de Rauly of the Vapor Technology Association via Reuters. "We're happy to have bipartisan co-sponsors because up until now we only had Republican buy-in. Now we have Democratic buy-in as well."
Under the 2009 Tobacco Control Act, a new tobacco product would have to prove that it is "substantially equivalent" to a produce that is already out in the market before the grandfather date, which is Feb. 15, 2007. If nothing exists yet, the new product would then undergo the stringent review process. The application process requires a company to prove with scientific data that the product does not pose health risks to the population.
According to Cleveland.com, the bill would've seemed reasonable in 2009, but the grandfather date set is no longer practical since many of the e-cigarettes now available on the market did not exist in 2007 yet.
However, health advocates oppose the Congress' decision. The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network said that changing or invalidating the grandfather date would give e-cigarette companies a free pass to market new products before it can be determined if they pose harm to public health.
