smoking

FDA Limits Flavored E-Cig Sale Following Significant Increase in Use

Following the release of an CDC report in MMWR1 that showed that 3.6 million middle and high school students currently use e-cigarettes—a significant increase over last year’s numbers—the FDA has announced that it will call for new restrictions to the sales of flavored e-cigarettes, eliminating them from most retail stores. The products will instead only be sold in specialty stores and websites that take steps to verify customer age.2

 

“[F]rom 2017 to 2018, there was a 78% increase in current e-cigarette use among high school students and a 48% increase among middle school students,” said FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, MD, in a statement. “The total number of middle and high school students currently using e-cigarettes rose to 3.6 million—that’s 1.5 million more students using these products than the previous year…More than two-thirds (67.8%) are using flavored e-cigarettes.”

 

In response to these trends, the FDA will seek to enforce that all flavored e-cigarette products (other than tobacco, mint, and menthol flavored or non-flavored products) be sold only in age-restricted in-person locations and online under heightened practices for age verification.

 

The exception to mint- and menthol-flavored products comes in response to data suggesting that these flavors are more popular among adults than children and may be key to adults using the products to transition away from cigarette use. Further, because combustible cigarettes are available in menthol flavor, the FDA wishes to avoid creating a situation where combustible cigarettes have features that make them more attractive than e-cigarettes. Should data show that use of mint- or menthol-flavored e-cigarette use among children is not declining over time, the FDA plans to revisit this exception in the future.

 

“[T]he bottom line is this: I will not allow a generation of children to become addicted to nicotine through e-cigarettes. We won’t let this pool of kids, a pool of future potential smokers, of future disease and death, to continue to build. We’ll take whatever action is necessary to stop these trends from continuing,” Gottlieb concluded.

 

—Michael Potts

 

References:

  1. CDC. Notes from the Field: Use of electronic cigarettes and any tobacco product among middle and high school students — United States, 2011–2018. MMWR. 2018;67(45):1276–1277.
  2. FDA. Statement from FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, M.D., on proposed new steps to protect youth by preventing access to flavored tobacco products and banning menthol in cigarettes [press release]. November 15, 2018. https://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm625884.htm.