FDA Seizes Documents From E-Cigarette Maker Amid Crackdown On Flavored Vapes : NPR
▻https://www.npr.org/2018/10/03/653891923/fda-seizes-documents-from-e-cigarette-maker-amid-crackdown-on-vaping-flavors
JUULs are trendy, USB-shaped vaporizers that provide a quick dose of nicotine to users. Introduced in 2015, the vapes are marketed as an alternative to tobacco cigarettes for adult users, but some critics say that flavors such as mango and creme appeal primarily to teenagers and children. One study suggests that 81 percent of children who ever use tobacco start with a flavored tobacco product.
“The popularity of JUUL among kids threatens our progress in reducing youth e-cigarette use,” said Dr. Robert Redfield, director of CDC, in a press release. “We are alarmed that these new high nicotine content e-cigarettes, marketed and sold in kid-friendly flavors, are so appealing to our nation’s young people.”
The seizure was the latest in a series of FDA crackdowns on the e-cigarette market. In September, the agency announced it had issued more than 1,300 warning letters and fines to convenience stores, gas stations and other stores over the summer for selling e-cigarettes to minors — its largest such action to date.
“It is abundantly clear that tobacco companies are developing and marketing e-cigarette flavors that appeal to, and addict, children,” the senators wrote in a letter.
Durban and Murkowski recently introduced legislation that would ban the use of flavoring in cigars — not e-cigarettes — and give tobacco companies one year to prove that “their e-cigarette flavors actually help adults quit smoking cigarettes” and “do no cause children to start smoking.” Currently, there is no legislation regulating the flavors of e-cigarette products.
FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb called youth e-cigarette use an “epidemic” last month, saying the practice “shows no signs of abating.”
“The FDA won’t tolerate a whole generation of young people becoming addicted to nicotine,” he continued.