FDA Should Regulate E-Cigarettes to Aid Demise of Traditional Cigarettes

Could e-cigarettes lead to the end of cigarette smoking? Scientists have announced that could very well be the case, though first the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) needs to prove that e-cigarettes are safe and regulate them.

In this case, the scientists urge the FDA to accelerate their regulations of e-cigarettes. Further regulations would eliminate uncertainty regarding safety and drive the substitution and use of "clean" nicotine.

"If e-cigarettes...are thoughtfully regulated, they could play the same role as NRT, but at a truly national population scale," write the researchers in a news release. "Their use could shift smokers permanently away from lethal cigarettes to cleaner, safer nicotine products, saving innumerable lives."

In fact, published studies of e-cigarette devices indicate that the devices can be used as safe and effective nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) products such as gum, patches and inhalers. That said, the FDA needs to step in and make tests of their own.

Currently, the researchers are urging the FDA to step in so that e-cigarettes can be properly monitored. This, in turn, could lead to a better product that consumers could use in the future to replace traditional cigarettes and may reduce the number of deaths due to cigarette smoking.

The findings are published in the New England Journal of Medicine.