China, China, China
An op-ed published in the Arizona Capitol Times last week calls out the inaction of the Food and Drug Administration’s “Multi-Agency Task Force to Curb the Distribution and Sale of Illegal E-Cigarettes.” The author, Marco Lopez, spends several paragraphs pattering about the lack of enforcement actions taken against “illicit” Chinese vapes “tied to the Chinese Communist Party.” Lopez fails to grasp that just like the vast majority of all consumer-grade products, almost every single vaporizer product on the market comes from China. Yes, this includes all of the devices on the FDA’s “approved” list of vape products, such as the Vuse from R.J. Reynolds, and the roster of Njoy products from Altria. Turns out, even big tobacco companies can’t keep away from Chinese manufacturing.
The op-ed continues to attack the vapor industry, touting several studies showing that the most popular vapes are indeed not those “approved” by the FDA. Note that recent Nielsen Data shows R.J. Reynold’s Vuse topping e-cig sales, namely the menthol flavor, which is not currently FDA approved. It’s plain to see that there is a clear mishandling and misunderstanding of the vapor market from regulatory bodies. In fact, only two of the top selling vape devices are found among the measly 34 approved by the FDA. Is that to say this task force should go after the likes of R.J. Reynolds and Altria, who are also selling Chinese-made devices unapproved by the FDA? We all know that’s not going to happen.
Perhaps the biggest crux of Lopez’s ill-informed article is the total lack of reasoning as to why these devices should be removed from shelves. Vaping among youth is at an all-time low, and continuing to decline. Adult smokers are making the switch from excessively harmful cigarettes to a demonstrably safer alternative. No deaths have been directly attributed to nicotine vaporizers. All of this fear-mongering about China harkens back to yesteryear when Communism was the biggest evil in the world. If we blindly place blanket bans over entire markets, are we really any better than the Chinese Communist Party? This is the United States of America, where we value the right of responsible adults to make their own decisions.
