Craig Weiss

Combustion tobacco cigarettes will prematurely kill 480,000 Americans this year. This devastating trend is projected to continue for years, but it's not inevitable. According to the 2014 Surgeon General's Report, "non-combustible tobacco products, used alone, are far less dangerous to individual users than continued smoking."

E-cigarettes deliver nicotine without combustion and could help end smoking. As an e-cigarette company independent of the tobacco industry, NJOY's mission is to make combustion cigarettes obsolete. We do not sell such products and support policies and efforts that reduce their use — positions no tobacco company has embraced.

If smokers are to switch from combustion and its harm, the e-cigarette experience must be sufficiently satisfying. Suggestions to constrain nicotine to unsatisfying levels, or to ban flavors that appeal to adult e-cigarette users, could keep current smokers smoking. We embrace efforts to prohibit candy flavors to minimize youth appeal. Taxing e-cigarettes like combustion cigarettes or banning advertising also risks promoting continued combustion smoking.

While some e-cigarette advertising has been inappropriate, others bolster public health efforts. NJOY's "Friends don't let friends smoke" TV ads urge adult smokers to switch. Appropriate standards would ensure e-cigarettes are promoted in ways that minimize youth appeal while motivating adults to leave combustion smoking. Where e-liquids are sold separately, child-resistant packaging is essential.

Balanced regulation of e-cigarettes is needed from the FDA. It should recognize the promise of these products in the fight against the tobacco epidemic, while ensuring that electronic nicotine delivery systems are responsibly manufactured and marketed to adult smokers.

We should not forget that, according to the surgeon general, nearly 6 million children will die early from tobacco cigarette smoking if present trends continue. E-cigarettes are capable of disrupting those trends, allowing our children to grow up in a world without combustion smoking. Providing 42 million U.S. smokers with a viable path to leave smoking would transform our nation's health and economy. That lofty goal is one we should all support.

Craig Weiss is the president and CEO of NJOY Inc.