loading . . . FDA Overreach Is Killing Small Businesses You Promised to Protect Text SIGN PTWPUK to 50409 — We write as proud American small business owners in the independent vapor industry. For more than a decade, we have invested our lives, our savings, and our energy into building this industry — only to be failed by an FDA regulatory system that was never designed for us.
American-made vapor products—manufactured by businesses that have followed FDA regulations and invested heavily in the PMTA process—are now being seized nationwide. For years, industry trade associations warned the FDA that its regulatory framework was deeply flawed. These organizations dedicated years to advocating for reasonable oversight long before vapor products were even deemed tobacco, yet FDA dismissed every opportunity to collaborate.
In 2019, nearly 1,500 small business owners signed a letter to then-Acting FDA Commissioner Sharpless and CTP Director Zeller, predicting the industry’s outcome and pleading for reform. That plea was ignored. Now, only about 20% of those businesses remain. Thousands of family-owned companies have been forced to close, leaving employees jobless and communities without economic anchors.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has acknowledged the role of safer alternatives, stating: “I think the nicotine pouches are probably the safest way to consume nicotine. Vapes are second. But the thing we really want to get away from are cigarettes.” Yet FDA’s actions directly contradict this principle, removing the very products that help adults move away from smoking and leaving the market to be dominated by illicit, foreign-made disposables.
For over fifteen years, our industry has worked tirelessly to comply with shifting FDA requirements—collectively investing billions in applications, testing, compliance, and legal guidance—only to have the goal posts moved and nearly all applications dismissed without full consideration. The current regulatory system was built for billion-dollar corporations, effectively banning flavored vapor products and eliminating U.S. manufacturing of high-quality, boutique e-liquids made by the very innovators who founded this industry.
These regulations have not advanced public health. Instead, they have fueled an illicit market of unregulated foreign-made disposable products that pour into U.S. communities unchecked. Consumers are left vulnerable while legitimate American businesses are punished for trying to comply.
Unless the regulatory process is corrected and a realistic, science-based pathway is established that allows adult access to safe, high-quality flavored vapor products, the illicit market will continue to grow—at the expense of American lives, jobs, and livelihoods.
We urge you to hold FDA accountable, demand a fair and workable regulatory framework, and stand up for the tens of thousands of small businesses, workers, and millions of adult consumers who rely on this industry as an alternative to deadly combustible tobacco. https://resist.bot/petitions/PTWPUK
