What new regulations say
• The FDA will now regulate all tobacco products including e-cigarettes, cigars, hookah tobacco and pipe tobacco.
• Bans sale of all types of tobacco products to people younger than 18, requires photo identification for buyers younger than 27, prohibits sales in vending machines (except those in an adult-only facility) and prohibits the distribution of free samples.
• Requires that all products carry warnings that they have nicotine, an addictive chemical. Virtually all e-cigarettes and any new tobacco products will have to seek marketing authorization from the FDA. Products sold before Feb. 15, 2007, are exempt.
Source: FDA
New federal regulations will make it tougher for electronic cigarette businesses to operate and may put some out of business, local operators say.
“It’s going to be too restrictive,” said Drew Spurlin, manager at Vapor Royal in Springfield.
The Food and Drug Administration regulations, which took effect Monday, are aimed at curbing e-cigarette use by minors. The regulations for the first time make e-cigarettes, cigars, pipe tobacco and hookah tobacco subject to existing rules for cigarettes, smokeless tobacco and roll-your-own tobacco.
The rules require companies to submit all e-cigarette products produced before February 2007 for government approval, list their ingredients and place health warnings on packages and in advertisements.
Companies also are restricted in what they can tell customers and the free samples they give away.
The FDA action earned praise from medical associations, which have been concerned that e-cigarettes serve as a gateway drug to draw teenagers into a lifetime of smoking addiction.
But local store owners say the new regulations will eventually kill all small manufacturers and retailers because nearly every e-cigarette product must go through the expensive application process to deem whether it can continue to be sold.
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“This is going to wipe out the e-cigarette business and leave Big Tobacco running the industry,” said Chris Voudris, who owns four retail shops called Vapor Haus in the Miami Valley.
“The cost of regulations will be too costly for small companies to compete.
There are more than 12,000 e-cigarette stores in the U.S., including around 400 in Ohio. Voudris estimated there are at least 20 in the Miami Valley.
Manufacturers and store owners will be able to sell their products for up to two years while they submit a new production application, plus an additional year while the FDA reviews it.
Under the new regulations, retailers are required to ask for identification from customers who appear to be under the age of 27. The legal smoking age is 18, but the 27 rule was designed to stop older-looking teens from buying the product. Vending machine sales of e-cigarettes are also prohibited unless the machines are in adult-only facilities.
“We’ve never sold to minors,” Voudris said. “We’ve always carded anyone who looks like they are under the age of 27.”
Also covered are premium, hand-rolled cigars, as well as hookah and pipe tobacco. Before the new regulations, there was no federal law prohibiting retailers from selling e-cigarettes, hookah tobacco or cigars to minors, though almost all states already prohibit such sales.
In most e-cigarette shops, trying out new liquid vapors was part of the experience of shopping for products. Under the new regulations, vape shops can no longer give free samples to customers.
Vapor Royal now charges customers $1 to try a sample, Spurlin said.
Voudris opened his first vapor shop in 2013 at age 21. Now 24, he owns shops in Kettering, Belmont, Riverside and Vandalia where he employs around 12 people.
“We’ve always said that vaping is for people who want to stop smoking. It’s a tool to get off nicotine. It has 4,000 less chemicals than a cigarette,” Voudris said.
Under the new law, Voudris and other store owners cannot tell customers that e-cigarettes are an alternative to smoking.
The rules are long overdue, according to anti-smoking groups.
“Youth use e-cigarettes more than any other tobacco product on the market today, serving as an entry point to more traditional tobacco products and placing kids at risk to the harms and addiction of nicotine and other tobacco products,” Harold Wimmer, national president and CEO of the American Lung Association, said in a statement. “Ending the tobacco epidemic is more urgent than ever, and can only happen if the FDA acts aggressively and broadly to protect all Americans from all tobacco products.”
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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