

Comment Info: =================

General Comment:Dear Mr. Zeller:

The first thing I'd like you good folks to know is that I, as well as hundreds of family and friends, have successfully transitioned off of cigarettes and on to the significantly safer electronic variety.  My doctor is amazed at how all of my health indicators have steadily improved and I feel amazing.  Please sir, be very deliberate an cautious about over-regulating.  Personal vaporizers represent an incredible opportunity for this country to get off deadly cigarettes.  I am proof that it works.  I tried everything and this method was incredibly easy and effective.  The long term costs of cigarettes are staggering.  They make ALL of their users, sick, and are known to kill.  Again, over-regulation of an incredibly effective method to quit would slow, if not kill this rare opportunity.  Not to mention place unnecessary burdens and business killing costs on small business that produce these products.

Please sir, listen to the public.  Please sir, restore my faith that government can do something good.  Please sir, don't hand the big tobacco lobby another victory.  Let the people win this one.  I beg of you.

All that being said: 

I am writing as an individual consumer to request an extension of the comment period for the Food and Drug Administration's ("FDA") Proposed Rule Deeming Tobacco Products to be Subject to the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, as amended by the Family Smoking and Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (the "Proposed Rule") published at 79 Fed. Reg. 23,142 and Federal Register No. 2014-09491. On behalf of myself, I am requesting that the comment period for the Proposed Rule be extended by the FDA for an additional 105 days, from its current 75-day period, to 180 days.

The Proposed Rule raises a number of significant issues and questions that are important and relevant to me, as a consumer of products that are proposed for regulation under the Proposed Rule. The Proposed Rule asks about a hundred different questions I might want to respond to. I want to provide my thoughts and comments on many of these issues, but my time to devote to researching and providing thoughtful comments on these important questions is limited. I have already spent many hours researching and dissecting these issues, but they take time. I know that the FDA took many years to even come up with the Proposed Rule, so I do not think it is at all unreasonable to allow the public a mere six months to comment on it. This is our only opportunity, as consumers, to provide our feedback. 

I feel very strongly about e-cigarettes as an alternative to combustible cigarettes. Quite simply, I firmly believe that they saved my life. I wish to provide you with my personal story, as well as science- and evidence-based responses to your questions so that you can take my comment into account. I realize that the FDA has the authority under 21 CFR 10.40 to extend this time frame and that the FDA has exercised this authority on numerous occasions in the past. I would therefore ask that you do so here, so that all stakeholders have the opportunity to provide their comments on this proposed regulation.

I appreciate your consideration of my request and am happy to discuss this issue with you further.

Steven Sapir
781-724-0288
16 Tall Timbers Lane
Kingston MA  02364
