Trump, RFK Jr. and the case for revolutionizing tobacco regulation

Washington Times — Trump and RFK Jr. must reform the FDA's regulatory process to make safer alternatives accessible

This Aug. 2, 2018, file photo shows the U.S. Food and Drug Administration building behind FDA logos at a bus stop on the agency’s campus in Silver Spring, Md. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

The newly inaugurated administration brings a crucial opportunity to combat chronic diseases, which claim hundreds of thousands of American lives annually, and one leading preventable cause of death – smoking – could be eradicated under the new administration. This could easily be achieved simply by following through with plans to reform the beleaguered U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to make it easier for smokers to quit by making the switch to less harmful products.

President Trump has pledged to protect flavored vaping, which is known to be 95% safer than combustible cigarettes, while Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has vowed to overhaul the FDA. For the tens of millions of adult smokers, these changes cannot come soon enough.

Since 2009, the FDA has regulated tobacco products but has performed dismally in fostering innovation and technological advancements in tobacco harm reduction, including e-cigarettes, heated tobacco, and oral nicotine products. Despite conspiracy theories and misinformation spread by anti-harm reduction activists, vaping and other alternative nicotine products are a consumer-driven revolution rooted in science that thrived before unelected federal bureaucrats imposed significant barriers to entry.

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