June 7, 2016 – Deeming Rule

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Anchor lead:  The FDA seems to be flexing some muscle in the tobacco product world, Elizabeth Tracey reports

No one under the age of 18 can legally purchase the full range of tobacco products, the FDA has ruled recently.  Enid Neptune, a lung expert and anti-smoking advocate at Johns Hopkins, applauds the move.

Neptune: We’ve been waiting for this since 2014.  This is the first time that the FDA has actually come out with a ruling that expanded their authority to some of these other products, and these include cigars, cigarillos, little cigars, but importantly this also includes e-cigarettes and hookahs. This means that they can actually implement legislation, they can have requirements for these products, and they can actually set up some type of authority in order to review these products as they come onto the market.  :33

Neptune says if this action had been undertaken earlier, legions of adolescents who’ve become hooked on nicotine because of e-cigarette use may have been prevented from doing so. She’s hopeful that state legislation such as that in Hawaii and California may soon up the age to 21 nationally.  At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.