The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is currently reviewing millions of applications from e-cigarette makers and must decide today if flavored e-cigarettes are “appropriate for the protection of public health.”
Use of Flavored E-Cigarettes
A study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revealed that roughly 15 percent of adult smokers successfully quit smoking using e-cigarettes. Additionally, a study in the New England Journal of Medicine found that, of those smokers who quit, 18 percent remained cigarette-free after a year.
Despite these positives, e-cigarettes have caused notable harm to public health. Lawmakers and public health advocacy groups focus on vaping’s appeal to teens and even children. A 2020 study from the CDC determined that nearly 20 percent of high school students and 5 percent of middle school students had vaped regularly. These users primarily partake in flavored e-cigarettes.
Because of this usage by America’s youth, several lawmakers and state attorneys general have urged the FDA to ban all flavors, including menthol. The agency has already banned the sale of reusable flavored e-cigarettes sold by companies like JUUL, but it currently allows the sale of disposable flavored products.
E-Cigarettes As A Cessation Device
Most public health experts agree that some kind of e-cigarettes should be available to help wean adults from cigarettes. However, anti-vaping advocates believe that flavors are unnecessary to sell e-cigarettes to individuals trying to quit smoking. After all, they are already familiar with tobacco-flavored products.
Plus, many of these businesses don’t play by the rules. “No one has attempted to file applications or legally market these products [before now]. No one has filed applications to make modified risk claims legally,” explains Desmond Jenson, a lawyer at the Public Health Law Center at the Mitchell Hamline School of Law. “The whole idea that e-cigs are a cessation device — why has no company filed a drug application to say it’s a cessation device?”
For more information about the investigation into flavored vaping products, contact us today.
Additional Reading:
FDA Removes 55,000 Flavored Vaping Products From Market
JUUL Labs Faces “Substantive Scientific Review” from the FDA
Tracy Everhart
Tracy Everhart is the Editor for Drug Law Journal. A highly-trained and certified medical professional, Tracy is also an accomplished medical writer. After spending years on the front lines of the medical profession, Tracy now devotes her expertise and skills to researching and reporting on new drugs and devices that enter the market, as well as their side-effects and the real-life stories involved. Prior to joining Drug Law Journal, Tracy wrote for benchmark online healthcare resources focused on families and, in particular, women’s health issues. Tracy holds post-graduate degrees from both the American College of Healthcare Sciences and the Yale School of Nursing. She is also a graduate of both Hampshire College, where she studied microbiology and the University of South Carolina school of nursing.