End the War on Vaping
The time is now to take the politics out of health and to rely on science to make evidence based decisions on the impact of vaping. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has pointed a finger at tobacco as the leading cause of “preventable disease, disability, and death in the United States.” Despite this, some in the federal government wish to ban the very product drawing adults away from deadly tobacco products.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) opened a new front on products aimed at adults by attempting to get the FDA to investigate a foreign made vaping product, because he does not like the marketing. The New York Post reported in March of this year the Senator “is calling on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to investigate a hot, new Chinese-made e-cigarette,” because “the product is wrapped in colorful packaging to attract youthful customers.”
The investigation is a dangerous step towards a ban, much like how the federal government went after JUUL when their products were targeted to smokers who have experienced almost a half million deaths annually in the U.S. - approximately 1,300 per day and about 54 per hour. One would think the federal government would take a scientific and evidence based approach to this recent so-called ban, instead of believing a liberal Senator who is out for the vaping industry.
Additionally, it should be noted that Sen. Schumer is a cosponsor of a bill to legalize marijuana, a far more dangerous product to lung health than vaping, yet consistency, he will not get in the way of progressive politicians on a mission. I am not taking a position, for or against, legalizing marijuana, but I am pointing out that Sen. Schumer is being inconsistent for trying to ban a vaping product which is arguably much safer than smoked marijuana.
The fight to ban flavored vaping is rooted in an ideology which pushes aside common sense and science for the age-old argument we need to change the law to protect children, even though children are just as equally at risk for wanting fruit flavored alcohol, THC laced gummy products, and flavored fine cut tobacco commonly referred to as “dip.”
The war on vaping is misguided because many of the people attracted to these products are trying to avoid a life addicted to cigarettes – a reasonable thing to support and likely lowering the long term costs for healthcare for these patients. The anti-vaping activists are putting lives in danger when they push for regulation intended to put certain vaping products off the market. Sen. Schumer is doing smokers no favors by stifling an innovative tool which is drawing many Americans from cigarettes to a safer alternative.
But this is not the first time Sen. Schumer has dipped his toe into the war on vaping. The New York Daily News reported on December 18, 2016, “with the industry blowing smoke over the danger of e-cigarettes, U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer Sunday called on federal regulators to recall the dangerous products, like the ones that exploded in the pockets of two men last month.”
Two e-cigarette batteries set the pants on fire of two vapers - motivating Sen. Schumer to jump on the report to urge regulators at the Consumer Product Safety Commission to investigate and possibly ban them. Sound familiar? The Schumer War on vaping has taken many forms over the past decade. While Schumer called e-cigarettes ticking time bombs, he has been largely silent on the dangers of cannabis products getting in the hands of children and adolescents.
The FDA needs to set politics aside for policy which is based on science, and the left’s war on vaping without data to qualify the necessity of a ban needs to be ended. Much like vaping is a cessation product for tobacco cigarettes, applied science is a cessation product for bad politically motivated policy promoted by liberals with an agenda.
Peter Mihalick is former legislative director and counsel to former Reps. Barbara Comstock, Virginia Republican, and Rodney Blum, Iowa Republican.
