FDA’s top tobacco official talks benefits of e-cigs over cigarettes

WASHINGTON — The head of the FDA’s tobacco center wants to do more to tout the health benefits of switching from cigarettes to e-cigarettes, now that youth vaping rates are declining.

“With the reductions in [youth vaping rates] that we’ve seen, we’ve got an opportunity to ramp up our efforts related to the continuum of risk,” said Brian King, director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products, at a Friday event. “I am wholly open to enhanced efforts by the Center for Tobacco Products to message not only on the continuum of risk, but also misperceptions related to nicotine.”