News in brief - May 9, 2011

FDA won't appeal ruling on e-cigarettes

The Food and Drug Administration will not appeal the December 2010 court decision that said electronic cigarettes made or derived from tobacco should be regulated as tobacco products.

E-cigarettes are not drug devices unless they are marketed for therapeutic purposes, according to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

The FDA wanted the products regulated as drug delivery devices due, in part, to safety concerns about their unknown levels of nicotine and other chemicals. The agency said it is developing a strategy to regulate e-cigarettes as tobacco products under the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/PublicHealthFocus/ucm252360.htm).

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U.S. needs to measure progress on children's health issues, IOM says

How often and what kind of preventive services do American children receive? What kind of neighborhoods do they live in? What social relationships do they form? All these factors affect children's health, and yet the federal government lacks adequate ways to measure progress in these areas, according to an Institute of Medicine report released April 25 (www.iom.edu/reports/2011/child-and-adolescent-health-and-health-care-quality.aspx) .

The Dept. of Health and Human Services should standardize how it tracks race, ethnicity, language spoken in the home, and other indicators to help researchers better understand pediatric care quality and health disparities, the IOM's report said. Goals for pediatric and adolescent health and health care quality should be set, and progress on meeting those goals should be updated annually.

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