Falling out of ‘flavor’

Feds eye Juul e-cigs

The party may be over for the e-cig boom.

Federal health officials are cracking down on underage use of a popular e-cigarette brand following months of complaints from parents, politicians and school administrators.

The Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday it has issued warnings to 40 retail and online stores as part of a nationwide operation against illegal sales of Juul to children. Anti-smoking advocates point to flavors like mango, cool cucumber and crème brûlée as specifically targeting underage users.

Like other e-cigarettes, Juul is an electronic device that converts a liquid — usually containing nicotine — into an inhalable vapor. Thanks in part to its resemblance to a small computer flash drive, Juul has become popular with some teenagers as a discreet way to vape at school and in public.

The San Francisco-based company said in a statement it agrees with the FDA that underage use of its products is “unacceptable.”

“We already have in place programs to identify and act upon these violations at retail and online marketplaces, and we will have more aggressive plans to announce in the coming days,” the statement read.

Health advocates have worried about the popularity of vaping products among kids and the potential impact on adult smoking rates in the future.

FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said the agency plans additional actions in the coming weeks.

“This isn’t the only product that we’re looking at, and this isn’t the only action we’re going to be taking to target youth access to tobacco products, and e-cigarettes, in particular,” Gottlieb said in a statement.

Juul sales have exploded over the past two years and the brand now accounts for 55 percent of the $4 billion dollar US market for e-cigarettes, according to industry figures. That’s up from just 5 percent of the market in 2016.