By Felicity Duncan
In South Africa, the proposed Control of Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Bill generated some controversy by categorizing e-cigarettes and vaping with traditional cigarettes. The vaping industry (there’s a depressing thought for you) expressed concerns that vaping could be banned, causing, presumably, untold harm to South Africa.
It turns out that SA was just ahead of the curve on the whole vaping thing – the US Food and Drug Administration has done a 180 on the issue and announced this week that it is willing to consider a vaping ban unless the industry can do something to stop teens from buying the devices.
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Vaping products have flooded the market with little to no science behind them. It’s not clear how addictive they are, what damage they do to the lungs (though it’s clear they do some), and what other harmful or beneficial effects they may have (for example, we don’t know if they help people stop smoking, which is a frequent claim). The vaping industry has taken advantage of regulators negligence to aggressively market the products and teens have been among their most enthusiastic buyers. Unless they can clean up their act, it looks like governments around the world will be cracking down.
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