April 2016

This week marked the second anniversary of the Food and Drug Administration's release of a proposed rule to regulate cigars, e-cigarettes and other non-traditional tobacco products. The FDA has drafted final rules. However, the final rules have been under review by the White House for over five months.  A five-month long White House review of a public health regulation is highly unusual.

The ATS is extremely disappointed that the FDA and the Obama Administration have not taken more urgent action to regulate all tobacco products.  Earlier in April, the CDC released national data on youth tobacco use that made clear the urgent need for regulation of all tobacco products, including e-cigarettes.  The CDC data showed that 16 of every 100 high school students (16.0%) reported in 2015 that they used e-cigarettes in the past 30 days— a ten-fold increase from 2011. 

The ATS joined several other medical and public health organizations in a strongly-worded letter to President Obama asking him to move swiftly to finalize strong regulations on all tobacco products.