ASCO, AACR Urge FDA to Regulate All Tobacco Products—Including E-Cigarettes

ASCO and the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) sent a joint letter to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) urging the agency to regulate electronic cigarettes, cigars, and all other tobacco products and to strengthen the proposed regulations for newly deemed products. The letter was in response to an FDA proposal to extend its regulatory authority over tobacco products.

ASCO and the AACR applauded the FDA’s proposal to regulate electronic cigarettes. “It is vitally important that the FDA begin regulating these products as little is known about the health effects of e-cigarette use,” said ASCO President Peter P. Yu, MD, FASCO. “The potential use of e-cigarettes to assist smokers in quitting is unknown at this time. E-cigarettes may increase the likelihood that nonsmokers or former smokers will use combustible tobacco products or that smokers will be discouraged from quitting.”

ASCO and the AACR support many of the FDA’s proposals for regulating e-cigarettes and other products, but encourage the agency to do more. Specifically, preventing children from using tobacco products is crucial and can be achieved by efforts such as banning youth-oriented advertising and marketing, self-service product displays, and tobacco company sponsorship of youth-oriented events, in addition to restricting sales to minors and implementing age-verification procedures for Internet sales. ■