E-cigarettes cannot be regulated as a drug; Victory for electronic tobacco company

E-cig smokers can keep puffing.

An appeals court is saying the Food and Drug Administration cannot stop imports of electronic cigarettes.
The FDA wants to regulate e-cigarettes as a drug-device and last year ordered that a shipment could not enter the United States.

But Sottera Inc. of Arizona, which does business as e-cigarette distributor NJOY, says in a lawsuit that its product cannot be regulated as a drug-device.

"We're thrilled," Craig Weiss, the president of theScottsdale, Arizona-based company told Business Week. "Now we can continue to sell e-cigarettes under the regulations of the Tobacco Act."

E-cigarettes operate with a heating element and a battery. Users inhale a vaporized liquid nicotine mixture much the way traditional smokers inhale smoke, but without fire, smoke, ash or carbon monoxide.

"Some people believe that e-cigarettes are a safe substitute for conventional cigarettes," said study co-author Dr. Prue Talbot, director of UC Riverside's Stem Cell Center. "However, there are virtually no scientific studies on e-cigarettes and their safety. Our study — one of the first studies to evaluate e-cigarettes — shows that this product has many flaws, which could cause serious public health problems in the future if the flaws go uncorrected."

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