House Tells FDA to Ban E-Cigarettes During COVID-19

April 28, 2020 by Alec Stone MA, MPA, Former ONS Director of Government Affairs and Advocacy

On April 1, 2020, the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy asked (https://oversight.house.gov/sites/democrats.oversight.house.gov/files/2020-04-01.RK%20to%20Hahn-FDA%20re%20Vaping%20and%20Coronavirus.pdf) the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to clear the market of e-cigarettes because of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. It was responding to FDA’s request (https://www.journalnow.com/business/fda-requests-federal-court-extend-premarket-application-deadline-on-e-cigarettes-to-september/article_155febfe-bca6-54ed-b68d-3bf443d18ac7.html) to give e-cigarette manufacturers four additional months to submit applications to stay on the market before enforcing a ban.  

“Allowing e-cigarettes to remain on the market during this period would harm children and adults throughout the country and exacerbate the coronavirus crisis in critical ways,” subcommittee chair Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) said.  

Krishnamoorthi, a speaker at ONS’s March 2020 congressional briefing (https://voice.ons.org/advocacy/vaping-ban-bipartisan-drug-plan-tobacco-regulation-agency) on vaping and youth smoking rates, is championing antivaping work in Congress as a cofounder of the Congressional Caucus to End the Youth Vaping Epidemic (https://raskin.house.gov/media/press-releases/50-members-launch-bipartisan-congressional-caucus-end-youth-vaping-epidemic).  

Launched in September 2019, the bipartisan group of 52 congressional representatives was created to (http://dearcolleague.us/2019/09/join-the-congressional-caucus-to-end-the-youth-vaping-epidemic-3/) “serve as a forum in Congress to discuss needed solutions to better protect American youth from the dangers of vaping and nicotine addiction.”  


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