Vaping Gains Unlikely Ally in PETA

Also taken from ChrunMag.com.

Vaping Gains Unlikely Ally in PETA

Vaping advocates will be pleased — and perhaps a little surprised — to find that they have a new ally on their side.

The Daily Caller reported earlier this week that PETA, or the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, has blasted the FDA for allegedly considering the use of animal testing as part of the Pre-Market Tobacco Application (PMTA) process. This is the same pre-review process that vapor products will be forced to undergo under new federal regulations.

It is a well-known fact in animal advocate groups that animals, especially mice, are routinely used to test new tobacco products. And while most people would think that animal studies would never happen in vaping studies, the reverse might actually become true.

PETA is concerned over a meeting that the group says took place between the FDA and the Center for Tobacco Products. The agencies are apparently moving to determine whether or not vaping products, underneath the new federal regulations, should undergo animal testing to prove their efficacy before being re-released to the public.

For those who are not aware, PETA has extensively reported on animal testing for tobacco products. Studies have been continuously done using so-called “lab animals” to test the negative or positive effects of smoking. In fact, a report that is still currently on the organization’s site states that “in tests that many people don’t realize are still being conducted, animals are forced to breathe cigarette smoke for up to six hours straight, every day, for as long as three years.”

PETA has repeatedly claimed that the use of animals for testing in any capacity is cruel and unusual punishment. It is part of their primary mission to make it illegal for any company to use animal testing as part of any pre-review market process.

But the idea that vaping products, which are not tobacco products despite being categorized as such, might call for more animal testing in an industry that already does not need those tests is a bridge too far for the animal group.

The group is now focusing its direct attack on the simple fact that vaping products contain nicotine, not tobacco. This simple clarification is enough to create a question as to whether or not vaping products should be subjected to the same testing practices as traditional cigarettes or cigars — many of which are still, unfortunately, using animal testing to provide results for studies.

What does this mean for vapers? It means that the movement to remove vaping products from the tobacco classification is gaining steam. It means that other organizations, those who are not part of the pro-vape movement, see the same significant problems with the new federal regulations. And most of all, alliances like the one PETA is creating with the pro-vape movement is showing the US government — and Big Tobacco — that the vaping public is well informed and capable of making decisions that will further benefit not just the vape movement, but society as well.