The FDA Warms To Vaping

IN JULY, THE Food and Drug Administration(FDA) extended the deadline for e-cigarette manufacturers to seek regulatory approval of their products.

- Jacob Sullum

On the face of it, the change was merely a four-year stay of execution. But the agency also signaled a new receptiveness to vaping as a harm reducing alternative to smoking, which suggests the reprieve could turn into a commutation.

That would be good news for smokers who want to quit. For too long, American public health officials have been unreasonably hostile to e-cigarettes, which deliver nicotine in an aerosol that is far less hazardous than tobacco smoke and offers a closer simulation of the real thing than nicotine gum or patches do.