Health & Wellbeing

San Francisco bans sales of e-cigarettes from 2020

San Francisco bans sales of e-cigarettes from 2020
The San Francisco ban is targeted at all e-cigarette products that have not received FDA approval... which in effect, is all e-cigarette products
The San Francisco ban is targeted at all e-cigarette products that have not received FDA approval... which in effect, is all e-cigarette products
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The San Francisco ban is targeted at all e-cigarette products that have not received FDA approval... which in effect, is all e-cigarette products
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The San Francisco ban is targeted at all e-cigarette products that have not received FDA approval... which in effect, is all e-cigarette products

A unanimous vote by San Francisco's Board of Supervisors has effectively banned the sale of e-cigarettes in the city. Pending approval by the mayor, the prohibition is the first of its kind in the United States and will commence in early 2020.

The move by San Francisco city officials doesn't explicitly ban e-cigarettes, but instead prohibits the sale and distribution of e-cigarettes that lack premarket approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). No e-cigarette product currently has any FDA approval so this is, in effect, a complete ban.

"This temporary moratorium wouldn't be necessary if the federal government had done its job," says Dennis Herrera, co-author of the new ordinance and City Attorney. "E-cigarettes are a product that, by law, are not allowed on the market without FDA review. For some reason, the FDA has so far refused to follow the law. If the federal government is not going to act, San Francisco will."

Herrera's comments are a pointed jab at the FDA's slow action on instituting regulations targeted at the growing e-cigarette market. The amendments to the Tobacco Control Act, broadening FDA regulations to include modern smokeless tobacco products and e-cigarettes, were initially passed in mid-2016. At the time the regulation required e-cigarette companies to apply for clearance on all products by 2018.

In 2017 the FDA pushed that compliance deadline for e-cigarettes back to August 2022, claiming the extension will, "allow companies to develop higher quality, more complete applications informed by further guidance from the agency." It is this significant delay that San Francisco officials seem to be pushing back against with the city's new ordinance.

"Until such time as the FDA fulfills its statutory duty to conduct premarket reviews of new tobacco products, a generation of young people will become addicted to tobacco, resulting in an entirely preventable increase in the burdens and tragedies associated with tobacco use," the San Francisco ordinance states. "San Francisco is not content to wait until then before addressing, for its residents, what appears from the evidence to be a major public health crisis that is going unattended."

This is not the first progressive regulation recently instituted by the city of San Francisco. In May, the city was the first in the United States to ban local government and law enforcement uses of facial recognition technology.

12 comments
12 comments
Lance
I wonder how many people have died so far from smoking e-cigarettes?
fb36
IMHO, simply banning everything bad for everybody is NOT the solution!!! The result of prohibition of alcohol in early 20th century was a huge disaster but it seems nobody taking lesson!!!
MerlinGuy
This seems to be more of a political gambit to get people of San Francisco angry at the FDA than protecting their citizens.
paul314
Real pre-market review would produce a record (of health effects, pollutants produced etc) that the public could examine. Apparently neither the manufacturers nor the current FDA want such a public record. I wonder what they know that we don't.
Woodboz
Shooting up heroin and defecating on the sidewalk is one thing. BUT NO E-CIGS!!
Expanded Viewpoint
What a bunch of idiots! So what is going to keep someone from stepping outside of the city limits, and buying their drugs of choice there?!?! Is it just the devices that will be banned from being sold, or the chemicals that go into them too? You cannot legislate "good" behavior into people, we will always find a way to do what we feel we must do. Even if it kills us as a result. Those of us who can think clearly and logically do not choose to do things that have a high likelihood of causing great harm to our body. We take care of it as best we can so it lasts a long time.
Randy
MJBadagliacco
This PC crowd is unreal! We are going to ban it "cuz it's bad for ya and you are too stupid to think for yourself!"
Do good political hacks! They always want to ru(i)n everyone else's life... STAY OUT OF MY LIFE!!!!!
I am NOT saying these e-cigs are good for you... I am ONLY saying that people should be able to make their OWN decisions! Politicians need to stay out of peoples lives!
MJBadagliacco
@paul314 - In 2007, e-cigarettes were introduced to the American market. So Odummy had the opportunity to ban them under his administration. I can see you are more concerned with blaming the "current FDA" for the "e-cig problem" than the truth. The reality is there are FAR worse things health wise than an e-cig that are common place in American society!
Douglas Bennett Rogers
Over the past 50 years, marijuana and tobacco have traded places! One is as bad (or good) as the other. This is a political farce.
GregVoevodsky
Hopefully, the new stoners will be to lazy to vote their reps in the future.
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