FDA’s tobacco regulation draft proposal weakened by the White House
Author: Toni Clarke and Sharon BegleySource: huffingtonpost.com WASHINGTON, June 25 (Reuters) - White House changes to proposed rules for tobacco products significantly weakened language detailing health risks from cigars and deleted restrictions that might have prevented online sales of e-cigarettes, published documents show. The White House's Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which analyzes the potential economic consequences of proposed regulations, deleted language in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's recently proposed regulations describing how the rules would keep thousands of people from taking up cigar smoking and have enormous public health benefits. The OMB also weakened language detailing the FDA's concerns about the safety of e-cigarettes, according to documents published Tuesday in the Federal Register. Emily Cain, a spokeswoman for OMB, said that as with any rule, OMB's office of information and regulatory affairs conducted an interagency review process "to ensure that the regulations through which agencies implement policies are efficient, well-designed to achieve their objectives, and based upon the best available evidence." "It is routine for agencies to make changes to their draft rules during the course of OMB review," she added. "The goal is to maximize the effectiveness and benefit of the rules we complete." An FDA spokeswoman, Jennifer Haliski, said the FDA does not comment on changes to a proposal during the review process but said the period for the public to comment on the proposal is still open until Aug. 8. "All comments will be carefully considered as the final rule is being developed," she said in [...]