National Convention declines to regulate flavoured vapes separately

Lazia, 19 October 2019 — The National Convention of 2019 has decided against introducing separate regulation for the sale of flavoured e-cigarettes, judging that THC — which is already regulated — rather than nicotine is responsible for a wave of vaping-related lung injuries.

The past year has brought a sharp rise in vaping, particularly among teenagers, alongside an outbreak of lung injuries, turmoil in the e-cigarette industry and a good deal of public alarm. Devices originally marketed as a means of quitting smoking have generated health problems of their own, from exploding units — which have shattered jaws and, in some cases, killed — to seizures. The Ministry of Economic Affairs, which oversees Mahusetan food, drug and safety administration, attributes the explosions to “battery-related issues”.

Seizures have been a further concern. By August 2019 the American Food and Drug Administration had received 127 reports of seizures and other neurological symptoms — figures gathered over a decade, but alarming nonetheless — and had opened an investigation into cases involving devices made by the San Francisco company JUUL. It was these that first prompted the drafting of an E-cigarette Act to regulate the devices apart from other tobacco products, legislation soon overtaken by the emergence of lung injuries, a problem of an altogether different order.

The American Centers for Disease Control identified some 2,290 probable cases of such injuries across 49 states, Washington D.C. and the US Virgin Islands. Patients were overwhelmingly male — around 70 per cent — and 79 per cent were under 35; by 19 October, 42 had died. Symptoms, the Ministry of Economic Affairs notes, range from cough, breathlessness and chest pain to nausea, vomiting, fatigue and fever, arriving suddenly in some patients and building over weeks in others.

All the cases involve e-cigarettes, but beyond that much remains unknown; the ministry has grown wary enough of THC vapes to advise against them entirely, and against buying nicotine vapes on the street. Most patients, it says, had a history of using THC products, or both THC and nicotine. “We don’t have full data yet,” the president said when asked for comment, as investigators worked to test the many substances potentially implicated. On the evidence available, the National Convention concluded that THC, already regulated, was the likely culprit, and that further restriction was unwarranted.

The National Convention does not, however, endorse vaping. It warned that heavier regulation would probably backfire, handing an advantage to the traditional tobacco companies. The ministry’s own guidance is blunt: e-cigarettes may be less harmful than cigarettes, but “that doesn’t mean e-cigarettes are safe”. It urges young people, young adults and pregnant women not to use them at all, suggests others consider refraining while the investigation continues — “particularly those containing THC” — and counsels that this is not the moment to take the habit up, while adding that those who have used vaping to leave cigarettes behind should not return to smoking.

Edited for the relaunch of the Courant van Lazia.