Budget adds fees for e-cigarette industry

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump's budget calls for collecting $100 million in new fees from the electronic cigarette industry to help combat a surge in underage vaping.

E-cigarettes are battery-powered devices that typically heat a nicotine solution into an inhalable vapor. Most experts agree they are less harmful than traditional cigarettes, but officials at the Food and Drug Administration and other health agencies were caught off guard last year by an explosion in underage use by teenagers.

About one in five high school students reported using e-cigarettes last year, according to the most recent federal survey data. The fees "would ensure that FDA has the resources to address today's alarming rise in youth e-cigarette use," and related future problems, the budget states.

The FDA already collects about $700 million in fees annually from makers of cigarettes, chew and other traditional tobacco products. E-cigarettes were not part of the 2009 law that gave FDA authority to regulate key parts of the tobacco industry, and to collect fees from companies.