When the Food and Drug Administration began regulating e-cigarettes last week, it stoked a hot debate. Further inflaming the wrangle over new regulations, the agency now treats premium cigars like cigarettes. It extended its authority over hookahs, pipes and chewing tobacco.
One result: Expect to read larger warning labels on the products about nicotine's addictive properties and the cancer and health risks they pose.
The FDA action earned praise from medical associations, which have been concerned that e-cigarettes serve as a gateway drug to draw teenagers into a lifetime of smoking addiction.
Cigar connoisseurs are fuming. As Consumer Affairs put it, "Cigar smokers have for years felt beleaguered. … Although established brands will not have to go through the certification process, the rule will make it difficult to introduce new products and create especially thorny problems for mom-and-pop tobacconists."
Who's right, who's wrong? To flesh out the arguments on both sides, the Sentinel enlisted Dr. Antonia Novello, the 14th Surgeon General of the United States, and Azarias Cordoba, who owns Cordoba & Morales Cigars in Casselberry.
To learn more
•"FDA's New Regulations for E-Cigarettes"
goo.gl/KCm8TR
•"E-Cigarette Use and Subsequent Tobacco Use by Adolescents"
goo.gl/jsT544
•"Cigar smokers aghast at FDA regulation of tobacco," Consumer Affairs
goo.gl/v09nTg
•"FDA E-Cigarette Regulations Give Smoking a Boost"
goo.gl/eTBt6m
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