US vaping regulations are likely to tighten

Significance

McConnell explained that his move is to crack down on middle and high school students increasingly using “tobacco products” and becoming “hooked”. This comes as a federal court on May 15 ordered the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to expedite issuing regulations for e-cigarettes, in a suit brought over concerns about a spike in ‘vaping’ (smoking using e-cigarettes) among young people in the United States.

Impacts

• Opioid-related court rulings could set relevant precedents for firms manufacturing other addictive substances.
• Tobacco firms are likely to encounter difficulty when trying to fund credible policy think tanks.
• E-cigarette regulations will likely draw on global examples and research; the EU has e-cigarette regulations, for instance.
• Tobacco firms would support raising the tobacco age, which is more likely to pass at federal level than not.