The Vaping Crises in the United States: A Regulatory Failure?

Abstract

This report analyses two distinct vaping crises that have recently emerged in the US: an ongoing youth vaping epidemic and the outbreak of a vaping-related illness (the so-called “E-cigarette or Vaping Product Use-Associated Lung Injury” or EVALI). In this context, the report argues although the EU regulatory regime for e-cigarettes is not sufficient per se to prevent an EVALI epidemic, it has prevented the onset of a youth vaping epidemic as dramatic as that in the US. To the extent that the EVALI and the youth vaping epidemics are related (as many of the people affected by EVALI are young adults), it submits that the framework established by the Tobacco Products Directive could mitigate the extent of a possible EVALI epidemic in the EU.