Vaping has been around for about a decade now. There have not been enough studies to show how e-cigarettes would affect the body, or what harm it could do to a person close to the person that is vaping. There have been new regulations put on the vaping industry which is being fought by e-cigarette companies. Below are some of the new regulations that have been passed and some that are still in progress.
- Because of the rising use of e-cigarettes by teenagers and the recent health effects and deaths, they have raised the legal age from 18 to 21. They are hoping this will make it harder for teens to use vaping products.
- The FDA is working on the final guidelines which should be done in the near future. The FDA is looking to ban all flavored e-liquid including menthol. Some states have taken it upon themselves to make their own guidelines. There are states that have already banned flavored e-liquid. The FDA is sure to release their guidelines soon.
- 17 states have already raised the age requirements to 21 and San Francisco has banned the use of all e-cigarettes. This will ban all e-cigarettes and they cannot be shipped to San Francisco. Most states will surely follow the age requirement and some other may even join the ban of all vaping products.
- Other planned restrictions will be keeping the e-cigs off of the shelves at gas stations and convenience stores. They do not want teens to have access to these products, and think that having less places to buy the product will aid in deterring them.
- New verification when purchasing vaping products online should help to keep them out of a teens reach. It should not be possible for a teen to buy these products online. They plan to ban all marketing towards teens which is already starting to happen. This is something that should not have happened in the first place.
No one knows for sure when all these regulations go into effect. They need longer studies to figure out exactly what effects this could have on the health of the user. The FDA needs to study the methods in which these products are made. Each company should be transparent about what ingredients are in their e-liquids so that the FDA can figure out if these substances are harmful or not. That is the best way to make them safer.
