Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released its “deeming document,” a roadmap of how it plans to regulate tobacco products it currently does not, largely focusing on e-cigarettes and cigars. If approved, the FDA will essentially require these products to meet similar standards as cigarettes and chewing tobacco, including the disclosure of ingredients, registration and approval of products, warning labels, restrictions of free samples and others. However, the premium cigar industry might receive a large break in the form of exemption. There are two plans laid out by the FDA, “option one” includes premium cigars under its authority; the other—option two—would exclude premium cigars, potentially allowing for the industry to operate how it does today. A 75-day comment period will begin tomorrow. Members of the public are asked to submit their thoughts on how the FDA should proceed. This includes solving the question of whether premium cigars should be exempted, and secondly deciding what a “premium cigar” actually is. The deeming document preliminarily defines a premium cigar as meeting eight requirements, each of which the FDA is asking for comment on regarding whether its definitions would be effective and appropriate. The proposed requirements are: Is wrapped in whole tobacco ...
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