Will FDA Regulation Preserve or Destroy the E-Cigarette Industry?

Last week the Food and Drug Administration
finally published its proposed regulations for e-cigarettes, which
put off important decisions for years and leave the industry’s
future unclear. In my latest
Forbes column, I ask whether e-cigarettes will be
able to win approval under the categories created by the Family
Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act. Here is how it
starts:

The first time the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) moved to
regulate electronic cigarettes, it tried to ban them. Last
week it took a different approach that may ultimately have a
similar effect. Much will depend on whether the FDA irrationally
decides to treat e-cigarettes as a menace to public health or
recognizes them as a lifesaving alternative to conventional
cigarettes.

Read the whole thing.