WELCOME 2021

While we are still prevented from meeting in person, we are delighted to announce that The E-Cigarette Summit – USA, will take place in a virtual format on 25-26 May 2021, US Eastern time – the full agenda is now available here.

The Summit comes at a time of great change within the U.S. regulatory and tobacco control environments.  The long-awaited PMTA deadline came and went on September 9, 2020 and the FDA is under a Court Order to process applications within 12 months of that date. It remains to be seen how pragmatic or strict  the FDA’s review will be in practice – and thus whether we will see a marketplace with only a handful or, conversely, a wide variety, of authorized ENDS products.  How the FDA’s application of the “appropriate for the protection of public health” standard is interpreted will have far reaching consequences for policy makers, public health and tobacco control.

The fears raised over youth initiation of e-cigarettes has often overshadowed discussion regarding the potential for adult smoking populations. This has turned into an extended and unhelpful conflict, splitting public health into factions and pitting former allies in tobacco control communities against each other. This has increasingly spilled over into the scientific community where we have seen the same data interpreted differently. The challenge this presents for both state and federal regulators should not be underestimated.

All of this occurs in the shadow of Covid-19, which has again placed a spotlight on health inequities. The national smoking rate has fallen to historic lows, but the socioeconomic gap has never been bigger. Wealthier and more-educated Americans are now largely spared the cost of smoking related death and disease. This is a phenomenon  is replicated similarly in other developed countries.  If we are to reach the “Smoke free” and “tobacco end game goals” it will be through a combined effort of tobacco control,  public health and regulatory strategies.

The E-Cigarette Summit has a single aim of facilitating respectful dialogue and thoughtful analysis of the latest research and exploring how the evidence should be interpreted, to deliver the most effective health strategies to reduce smoking related death and disease.  The role that e-cigarettes and tobacco harm reduction could play in ending or extending the smoking epidemic is likely to remain one of the most fiercely fought debates in public health history. We cannot answer every question yet, but we believe that progress is not only possible but imperative.

We hope that you can join us.  If you are unable to join live, all sessions will be available to registered participants for 6 months after the Summit, on the event platform.  Pre-recorded presentations will also be available to registered participants 24 hours before the Summit starts, to allow those on different time-zones to submit questions for the panel debates.