Trump Plan to Eliminate FDA Oversight of Tobacco Is Recipe for Further Delay in Protecting Kids from E-Cigarettes
Statement of Matthew L. Myers, President, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids
WASHINGTON, DC – The Trump Administration’s proposal to strip the FDA of its legal authority to regulate tobacco products and create a new stand-alone agency to handle tobacco regulation is the wrong idea at the wrong time. For the first time in history, Congress in 2009 gave the FDA full authority to regulate tobacco products. It has taken a long time for the FDA Center for Tobacco Products to build up the staff, legal expertise and structure to do the job.
By disrupting the current structure for regulating tobacco products, this proposal is a recipe for delay and distraction at precisely the time when the FDA must take decisive action to remove the many flavored e-cigarette products that are still on the market and when the FDA is about to begin its first-ever review of e-cigarettes. Instead of stripping the agency that has spent a decade building its capacity, the Administration should be taking strong and immediate action to protect kids, including banning all flavored e-cigarettes and enforcing the May 12 deadline for e-cigarette makers to apply to the FDA to keep their products on the market.
This proposal is yet another giveaway to the tobacco and e-cigarette industry from an Administration that recently sided with the industry over kids by leaving thousands of flavored e-cigarettes on the market. White House Domestic Policy Council director Joe Grogan made clear what side the Administration was on in November when he called FDA regulation of tobacco products “a huge waste of time” – despite the fact tobacco use is the nation’s No.1 cause of preventable death and e-cigarettes are addicting a new generation of kids.
With over 5.3 million kids now using e-cigarettes, we cannot afford more delays and excuses in confronting this public health crisis. Congress should reject this harmful proposal and the Administration should start putting the health of our kids before the tobacco industry’s profits.