Letter: Bipartisan amendment to make vapor products - and public health - better

'Without access to vapor products, economists conclude FDA regulations will prevent smokers from switching to safer alternatives'

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America's 36 million smokers will tell you, quitting isn't easy. In recognition of this, a growing group of public health professionals have urged the development of safer, smoke-free alternatives that provide nicotine without the deadly smoke and tar created when traditional cigarettes are combusted. Electronic cigarettes, known as vapor products, are now among the most effective and widely used tools in America to help smokers quit.

My family smoked, I smoked, my wife smoked and my father smoked until the day he had a heart attack. While we were visiting him in the hospital, he was puffing on a little white stick - a cig-a-lite given from his doctor to help curb his craving for nicotine in a safer way. Both my wife and I had been receiving pressure from our children to quit, so we tried the rudimentary vapor device and never looked back.

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We quickly noticed marked differences in our lung capacity and even regained our sense of taste. The verdict was out: Tobacco tastes bad. Our story was no different than many others, as research continues to show that adult smokers who start vaping show improved pulmonary function and other measures of health similar to those who quit altogether. With over a half million smokers in Oregon, no product has the same potential to make an immediate, positive impact on the health of Oregonians like vaping.

Unfortunately, in 2016 the FDA finalized a rule that required all new products that came to market after Feb. 15, 2007 - the entire market that exists today - to enter a retroactive approval process. The FDA estimates this process will cost $350,000 to $500,000 for each product, costing our Oregon businesses millions of dollars to stay open. No Oregon manufacturer or vape shop will survive.

Without access to vapor products, economists conclude that FDA regulations will prevent smokers from switching to safer alternatives and drag current vapers back to traditional cigarettes. Beyond the costs, the approval timeline is absurdly slow: The FDA will begin reviewing and approving products first made in 2014 in 2024 - a full ten years after they hit the market. What good does reviewing outdated products do, instead of focusing on how we can make better ones? This is bad for individuals and public health.

Congressmen Tom Cole, R-Okla., and Sanford Bishop, D-Ga., have proposed a bipartisan solution. The Cole-Bishop Amendment would require the FDA to establish sensible product standards across the vapor industry, instead of this regressive approval process. The amendment also addresses the concerns of youth accessing vapor products, by banning vending machine and self-service displays, restricting ads to adult publications, and requiring "Underage Sale Prohibited" and "Keep Out of Reach of Children" labels.

The Cole?Bishop Amendment creates smart, bipartisan regulations that benefit public health and local Oregon businesses. I am asking Sens. Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden, and my fellow Oregonians, to support the Cole-Bishop Amendment.

Christopher Ferreira is the owner of the Oregon Vape Shoppe, a downtown Hillsboro business. He lives in Hillsboro.