FDA Bans All Flavored Vape Pods Except Tobacco and Menthol
In an attempt to “curb the rise of youth vaping in the United States.”
This week, the Food and Drug Administration has announced that it will officially ban all flavored e-cigarette flavors excluding tobacco and menthol. According to Gizmodo, this new restraint is the agency’s attempt to curb the rise of youth using e-cigarettes like Juul in the United States. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said in a statement:
“By prioritizing enforcement against the products that are most widely used by children, our action today seeks to strike the right public health balance by maintaining e-cigarettes as a potential off-ramp for adults using combustible tobacco while ensuring these products don’t provide an on-ramp to nicotine addiction for our youth.”
Reports have also stated that the flavor ban will specifically affect cartridge-based vaping products, as well as all other electronic nicotine delivery systems that minors are able to access. The FDA also found that adolescents are more drawn to flavors like mint, cucumber and mango rather than tobacco and menthol.
E-cigarette companies will now have to comply within the next 30 days, otherwise, they will have no choice but to face action from the FDA. In related news, did you hear that Juul allegedly shipped over a million contaminated pods back in October?
