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| The proposed regulations announced by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) would allow flavored e-cigarettes products to be sold in stores only, not online, and would also ban menthol in cigarettes and flavored cigars |
US regulators Thursday ordered sharp restrictions on sales of e-cigarettes, as national data showed a 78 percent single-year surge in vaping among young people, with two-thirds using fruit and candy-flavored products.
The
proposed regulations announced by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) would
allow flavored e-cigarettes products to be sold in stores only, not online, and
would also ban menthol in cigarettes and flavored cigars.
The changes
are open to a public comment period lasting until June before they can take
effect.
"These
data shock my conscience," said FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, referring
to the latest data from the National Youth Tobacco Survey.
"From
2017 to 2018, there was a 78 percent increase in current e-cigarette use among
high school students and a 48 percent increase among middle school
students," he said.
A total of
3.6 million US youths reported vaping at least once in the past month, the data
showed.
"These
increases must stop. And the bottom line is this: I will not allow a generation
of children to become addicted to nicotine through e-cigarettes," said
Gottlieb.
The battery-powered devices heat a nicotine liquid that users inhale, and are gaining popularity in the United States and abroad, particularly among young people, which Gottlieb has previously described as an "epidemic."
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Vaping and
E-cigarettes shops in Downtown Los Angeles
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The battery-powered devices heat a nicotine liquid that users inhale, and are gaining popularity in the United States and abroad, particularly among young people, which Gottlieb has previously described as an "epidemic."
The
proposed rules aim to restrict sales of all flavored vaping cartridges -- other
than tobacco, mint and menthol -- to sales at "age-restricted, in-person
locations and, if sold online, under heightened practices for age verification,"
said an FDA statement.
The reason
mint- and menthol-flavored e-cigarettes are not included is they are more
popular with adults who may be using them to decrease or stop their use of
traditional cigarettes.
"This
reflects a careful balancing of public health considerations," Gottlieb
said, citing data that shows mint- and menthol-flavored e-cigarette products
"are more popular with adults than with kids."
At the same
time, the FDA announced a proposal to ban menthol in combustible cigarettes and
cigars.
"I'm
deeply concerned about the availability of menthol-flavored cigarettes,"
Gottlieb said.
"I
believe these menthol-flavored products represent one of the most common and
pernicious routes by which kids initiate on combustible cigarettes," he
said, adding that "menthol products disproportionately and adversely
affect underserved communities."
Stocks slide
 |
New US
regulations allow flavored e-cigarette to be sold in stores only, and not
online
|
Stocks slide
Health
experts applauded the FDA move.
"The
banning of flavors, popular among teens, would definitely be an important step
in curbing the growing epidemic of e-cigarettes among youth," said
Patricia Folan, director of the Center for Tobacco Control at Northwell Health,
a network of hospitals in New York.
Len
Horovitz, a pulmonary specialist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, said
"it is widely recognized that e-cigarettes are the gateway to smoking
tobacco cigarettes for teens and young adults."
E-cigarettes
expose users to significantly lower levels of potentially toxic substances than
traditional cigarettes, except for nicotine, the US National Academies of
Sciences, Engineering and Medicine said earlier this year.
But
Horovitz cautioned "there is a question of safety in e-cigarettes because
of the presence of propylene glycol, and other as yet unidentified
compounds."
Some
e-cigarette makers have already taken steps to curb sales to young people,
including JUUL, a fast-growing startup which announced Tuesday it is suspending
in-store sales of various flavored products and scrapping its social media
presence.
JUUL
flavors such as mango, fruit and creme will now only be available on the
company's website, "where we are adding additional age-verification
measures," a statement said.
For its
part, American tobacco giant Altria, maker of major brands like Marlboro and
Chesterfield, said earlier this month it would stop selling two types of
e-cigarettes that use "pods" of flavored nicotine liquid for refills.
Altria will
maintain the sale of its other e-cigarettes -- which resemble conventional
cigarettes and which come in traditional flavors like tobacco and menthol.
On Wall
Street, tobacco stocks slid on the news, continuing a decline that began last
week as media reports warned of the impending regulations.
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