"E" Cigarette

FDA seeks to regulate e-cigarettes as tobacco products.
In its "Booster Shots" blog, the Los Angeles Times (4/26, Healy) reports the Food and Drug Administration "announced Monday that it will act to ensure the government's right to impose marketing, manufacturing and safety restrictions on 'electronic cigarettes,' a nicotine delivery device widely billed as an alternative to cigarettes for those trying to quit and for smokers who can't light up." In a letter "posted to the FDA's website Monday, Dr. Lawrence R. Deyton, director of the FDA's Center for Tobacco Products, said the agency will act to regulate e-cigarettes as tobacco products. To shore up its authority to do so, the agency will propose new regulatory language that would specifically define e-cigarettes as a tobacco product."
The AP (4/26, Felberbaum) reports the FDA said it "won't try to regulate" smokeless electronic cigarettes under "stricter rules for drug-delivery devices." The news is "considered a victory for makers and distributors of the devices, which continue to gain popularity worldwide."