These factors have made it difficult for the FDA to address e-cigarettes. “They have done one thing I would have recommended they do: they have proposed deeming authority to take into account a whole variety of [tobacco] products,” he said. Although e-cigarettes contain a nicotine nebulizer with an electronic device, and as such could potentially have been regulated as medical devices just like nicotine patches and gum, courts have instead ruled that they are tobacco products.
“It’s a complex issue, but I’m all for getting people off of cigarettes, and there are alternative nicotine delivery devices,” Dr. Cummings concluded. “I think they need to be shown to be safe and effective.”