It is disheartening to see that the media’s near-exclusive focus while covering the Food and Drug Administration’s recent tobacco “deeming regs” has been on the provision that restricts e-cigarette sales to minors. The New York Times published an editorial entitled “Keeping E-Cigarettes Away From the Kids,” and the Huffington Post ran an article with the headline “Finally—Commonsense Protections for Our Kids From Tobacco.”

Most people agree minors should not have access to products that contain substantial levels of nicotine (and “substantial” is used because many foods contain trace amounts of nicotine). But, in focusing on this move, commentators are missing how the FDA’s new regulations will destroy 99 percent of an industry that offers an option the Royal College of Physicians finds is 95 percent safer than cigarettes.

The FDA’s regulations will force all e-cigarette products to go through the costly and time-consuming premarket tobacco product application process, a step that all but the big tobacco companies will not be able to comply with. 

If anything, e-cigarettes boost public health and lower health-care spending by offering a safer alternative to cigarettes.

While the health benefits of light and low-tar cigarettes are nonexistent, the same is not true for e-cigarettes. The FDA is making a giant leap of logic to assert that e-cigarettes cause “thousands of unnecessary deaths and injuries and huge costs to our health care system.” No one can honestly argue that the slight risks e-cigarettes pose are anywhere near comparable to the major risks light cigarettes pose. If anything, e-cigarettes boost public health and lower health-care spending by offering a safer alternative to cigarettes.

Now that the final regulations are out, it is up to Congress to take action so that 99 percent of the e-cigarette market is not wiped out, along with a much safer alternative to smoking.