If President Donald Trump is looking for an easy way to bring American jobs back—without imposing tariffs, building walls, or imposing other big government policies that will cost American consumers more in the long run—and ease regulations on American businesses, he could start by repealing new regulations for electronic cigarettes approved in August by the Food and Drug Administration.

Those regulations for electronic cigarettes adopted by the FDA during the final year of the Obama administration could, if left on the books, effectively wipe out large swaths of the vaping industry. The Smoke-Free Alternatives Trade Association, an e-cigarette industry group, believes as much as 99 percent of all vaping products could be affected. That costs jobs, of course, but it also curtails the potential health benefits from getting Americans to switch from smoking to vaping.

President Elect Donald Trump is collecting guidance from US Citizens to help direct his first 100 days in office. He could take action that saves vaping in the USA. In its first 100 days, we need the new administration to route out the corrupt and dangerous regulations that the FDA Center for Tobacco Products, under the leadership of big Pharma lobbyist Mich Zeller has enacted. These regulations are designed to destroy the vape industry.

The FDA regulations, which were put into effect August 16, 2016, create a standard for vape businesses, including setting an age restriction and requiring all ingredients to be listed. While these regulations have been lauded and accepted by businesses, there is a feeling that other regulations, such as the PMTAs for each individual product.

The PMTAs cost around $330,000 per application for each individual product. With experts estimating that companies will be required to file 20 applications for each product in the first two years, that means that the total cost might exceed $6 million. Most companies offer about a dozen vape liquids, meaning that the cost to stay in business for them would be close to $100 million dollars, money that small vape businesses just don’t have.

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This is unfortunate, as vaping is fast becoming the first, best alternative to smoking. While health advocates and anti-vaping supporters state that vaping is just as dangerous as smoking, thereby rendering it void as a smoking cessation method, there is a lot of science that supports vaping. In fact, according to Britain’s Department of Health, known as Public Health England, released a study that proved that vape products were at least 95 percent less harmful than regular cigarettes.

Vaping is also good for the economy: since the industry was created in 2009, hundreds of small businesses have opened up around the country, leading to tens of thousands of jobs. If the regulations stay in place, the vaping industry will virtually vanish. The only companies that can pay the PMTA application fees are the cigarette companies who are now creating their own vape products. All the small businesses that have been created would go into bankruptcy, leading to a rise in the unemployment rate and a loss of profit for state budgets.

But the push and pull between vape supporters and anti-vaping activists might end with a Trump administration. Earlier this week, a coalition of 13 organizations and groups wrote an open letter to Congress to push back the pre-dictate date from February of 2007 to August of 2016 in order to give the industry a chance to survive.

If the federal government continues taking a hard-line stance that prohibits vaping, or makes vaping products so expensive or difficult to obtain that they effectively are prohibited, it is only standing in the way of potential health benefits of Americans switching from smoking to vaping.

tags:Trump Save Vaping, fda and ecigs