FDA plans to impose severe restrictions on e-cigarettes
WASHINGTON: The Food and Drug Administration, alarmed by a huge increase in vaping among minors, is expected to impose severe restrictions on the sale of most e- cigarettes products throughout the United States - actions that will likely have a significant impact on an industry that has grown exponentially in recent years with little government oversight.
As soon as next week, FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb is expected to announce a ban on the sale of flavoured e- cigarettes - the majority of vaping products sold - in tens of thousands of convenience stores and gas stations across the country, according to senior agency officials. According to its officials, the agency will also impose such rules as age-verification requirements for online sales.
The FDA moves are being spurred by preliminary government data showing ecigarette use rose 77 per cent among high schoolers and nearly 50 per cent among middle schoolers in 2018. That means 3.5 million children were vaping in early 2018, up one million from 2017. Gottlieb, who once served on the board of a North Carolina vaping company, was at one time viewed as an ally of the e- cigarette industry, and delayed some critical e- cigarette rules shortly after becoming commissioner in 2017.
But he has also said his first priority is protecting kids from tobacco-related disease.
“We now have evidence that a new generation is being addicted to nicotine, and we can’t tolerate that,” he said, referring to the vaping data in an interview before he made final decisions on e- cigarette policy.
The only exception to the flavoured products ban in convenience stores involves menthol e-cigarette products.
The FDA will continue to permit that flavour to be sold because menthol is permitted in regular cigarettes as well, and the agency doesn’t want to give traditional cigarettes an advantage over e- cigarettes in the retail setting.
Gottlieb’s actions are focused on a specific kind of vaping product that dominates the market - e- cigarettes that use prepackaged flavour cartridges, or pods. That includes the wildly popular vaping products by Juul Labs Inc.