Who’s behind the expensive campaign to ban Chinese disposable e-cigs?

On June 21, 2023 Consumer Action for a Strong Economy ran this full page ad in the San Francisco Chronicle urging the public to demand that the FDA “get illicit disposable vapes in kid-enticing flavors from China off American store shelves.”

On the webpage linked to this ad, Consumer Action for a Strong Economy (CASE) describes itself as “a free-market voice for American Consumers.” A cursory view of its other positions shows strong support for pro-business positions. When describing its opposition to polices to fight global warming, the DeSmog blog reported that CASE refuses to disclose where it gets it money.

And this campaign is costing a lot of money. A full page ad in the San Francisco Chronicle cost $60,889 in 2020. And I doubt that San Francisco was the only place the ad ran. One has to wonder who is paying for this campaign and why.

My guess is that RJ Reynolds, possibly among others, is behind this campaign because it supports RJR’s lobbying effort to block competition to its Vuse e-cigarette. StatNews reported that

There’s a new bill in Congress meant to crack down on the cheap disposable vapes, like Puff Bar, that are increasingly popular with kids. But nearly all of the leading tobacco-control groups don’t want anything to do with it.

They say the bill is being pushed by the makers of competing vapes, namely RJ Reynolds, the maker of Vuse e-cigarettes, to take attention off of its products’ growing popularity, and to push competition out of business. Reynolds denies it helped craft the bill, and advocates can’t prove its involvement. But they point out that the legislation, which would require the Food and Drug Administration to lay out a plan for cracking down on illegal disposable vapes, is very similar to a petition Reynolds submitted to the FDA  just days before the bill was introduced.

While I agree that the FDA should block these illegal e-cigarettes (and has asked Customs and Border Enforcement to block at least some of them from import into the United States), it needs to move broadly to clear the market of all the e-cigarettes that are not “appropriate for the protection of public health.” (We and others think FDA did not follow the best science when it authorized the sale of Vuse Solo as “appropriate for the protection of public health.”)

As detailed in an excellent story by Liz Szabo from KFF Health News, through a combination of FDA enthusiasm for e-cigarettes (evidenced by its exercise of “enforcement discretion” to allow unauthorized e-cigarettes to remain on the market), political pressure from both the Obama and Trump White Houses, and industry lawsuits, “vaping has ballooned into an $8.2 billion industry, and manufacturers are flooding the market with thousands of products — most sold illegally and without FDA permission — that can be far more addictive.”

While we should continue to press the Biden Administration and the FDA to act on all e-cigarettes — including revisiting its current authorizations — the reality is that we should continue to focus on local and state laws to prohibit the sale of flavored e-cigarettes regardless of where they come from. That’s where real progress is actually occurring.