House panel aims to block FDA ‘vaping’ rules

WASHINGTON — A House panel is again trying to exempt increasingly popular e-cigarettes from new Food and Drug Administration rules.

The legislation approved Wednesday by the Republican-controlled Appropriations Committee would prevent the FDA from requiring retroactive safety reviews of e-cigarettes already on the market. It would exempt some premium and large cigars from those same regulations. E-cigarette products introduced in the future would face the safety reviews.

The development comes as the Trump administration has delayed enforcement of the new FDA rule and the e-cigarette industry is hopeful that efforts to roll back the Obamaera regulations will advance both as legislation and through several pending lawsuits.

Supporters say “vaping” is far safer than smoking tobacco and that the products, which generally heat a liquid nicotine solution into vapor, can help tobacco smokers quit. They say FDA rules would lead small companies that produce the products to go out of business rather than undergo expensive regulatory reviews.

“E-vapor products are 95 percent less harmful than combustible cigarettes,” said Rep. Sanford Bishop, D-Ga., a plan co-sponsor. “I want to help people in our country, America, to cycle off of cigarettes.”

But most panel Democrats said the products are dangerous and target children.

The provision to undercut the FDA rules was attached to legislation funding the agency’s budget for the fiscal year starting in October.