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The Food and Drug Administration is banning a range of flavored e-cigarette products, including fruit and mint, although menthol and tobacco-flavored pods will still be available, federal health officials said Thursday. The decision, a major compromise from the Trump administration’s previous promise to ban all flavors, comes amid an epidemic of teen vaping.

The action is targeted against e-cigarette products with disposable cartridges filled with liquid nicotine that appeal most to kids, health officials from the FDA and the Department of Health and Human Services said at a press conference.

Beginning in early February, companies will not be allowed to manufacture, distribute or sell unauthorized flavored cartridge-based e-cigarettes, HHS Secretary Alex Azar said.

The FDA will focus on restricting access to flavored e-cigarettes cartridges and will be monitoring e-cigarette companies that fail to adequately prevent youth access to their 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,” HHS Secretary Alex Azar said in a statement Thursday. Health and Human Services oversees the FDA.

Flavored e-liquids for “open tank” vaping systems that are mixed and sold by vape shops will still be legal, because these e-cigarettes are used mostly by adults, Azar said.

Azar called the new restrictions a “smart, targeted policy that protects our kids without creating unnecessary disruption” for adults who use e-cigarettes as a way to stop smoking traditional cigarettes.

 


Post time: Mar-15-2023