Photo: Brianna Soukup/Portland Press Herald/Getty
The Food and Drug Administration has announced a new policy to limit the access young people have to vaping products in the United States.
On Thursday, the FDA announced that starting in 30 days, they would begin enforcing a ruleprohibiting sales of “flavored, cartridge-based” e-cigarette products— which includes fruit and mint flavors — with the exception of tobacco and menthol.
In November, findings from the2019 National Youth Tobacco Surveyshowed that over 5 million middle and high school-aged children use e-cigarettes, with the majority of respondents indicating a preference for cartridge-based products.
“The United States has never seen an epidemic of substance use arise as quickly as our current epidemic of youth use of e-cigarettes,” Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said in astatement.
Added FDA Commissioner Stephen M. Hahn, M.D: “While we expect that responsible members of industry will comply with premarket requirements, we’re ready to take action against any unauthorized e-cigarette products as outlined in our priorities. We’ll also closely monitor the use rates of all e-cigarette products and take additional steps to address youth use as necessary.”
The FDA also declined to refer to the policy as a “ban,” noting that companies wishing to sell such products can “submit an application” and the federal agency will decide whether to authorize the products for sale.
Explaining why the FDA continued to permit the sale of tobacco and menthol flavors, Azar told reports on Thursday that the flavors were “less appealing” to kids, according to CNBC. Juul, a popular e-cigarette manufacturer, previously announced they wouldstop sellingtheir mint-flavored pods shortly after studies listed the flavor as themost popular among high school students,the outlet reported.
Months earlier,Donald Trumpannounced plans to undertake a more all-encompassing policy, which would completely remove flavored e-cigarettes from the market, with the exception of tobacco-flavored products.
In December, Congress passed a year-end congressional spending bill with a provision toraise the purchasing age for all tobacco products— including cigarettes and e-cigarettes — from 18 to 21.
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As the CDC has noted, a majority of vaping-related lung illnesses are coming fromproducts containing THC.
As of Dec. 31, theCDC reported 2,561 casesof hospitalized EVALI across the U.S., and 55 deaths from the illness have been confirmed.
The CDC has urged Americans to avoid vaping while investigations into the deaths and illnesses proceed.
“While this investigation is ongoing, people should consider not using e-cigarette products,” said Dr. Dana Meaney-Delman, incident manager of the CDC’s response to the vaping-related lung injuries. “People who do use e-cigarette products should monitor themselves for symptoms, for example, cough, shortness of breath, chest pain, nausea and vomiting — and promptly seek medical attention for any health concerns.”
source: people.com
