From The Trussville Tribune staff reports
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Over the past several years, e-cigarettes (vaping) were the most commonly used tobacco product by youth. In fact, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) more than 2 million middle and high school students were current users of e-cigarettes in 2017.
This is still a problem today among many middle and high schools where students have been concealing and utilizing e-cigarettes in classrooms and hallways during school hours.
One product that is commonly favorited by teens, Juul, resembles a USB flash drive and is easy to conceal. It comes in sweet flavors like mango and fruit medley, and delivers a powerful dose of nicotine, putting kids at greater risk of addiction.
Today the FDA announced a series of historical, yet critical, actions related to the marketing and sale of these e-cigarettes to teenagers.
Considered the largest coordinated enforcement effort in the history of the FDA, the agency issued more than 1,300 warning letters and civil money penalty fines to retailers who have been illegally selling JUUL and other e-cigarette products to minors during a nation-wide undercover operation in brick-and-mortar stores and online stores this summer.
As a result of these law violations, and the epidemic proportions to today’s American youth, the FDA Commissioner, Dr. Scott Gottlieb, said that the agency is taking new and significant steps to address this challenge.
“We cannot allow a whole new generation to become addicted to nicotine. In the coming weeks, we’ll take additional action under our Youth Tobacco Prevention Plan to immediately address the youth access to, and the appeal of, these products,” said FDA Commissioner Gottlieb.
“Today, we asked five e-cigarette manufacturers to put forward plans to immediately and substantially reverse these trends, or face a potential decision by the FDA to reconsider extending the compliance dates for submission of premarket applications.” Referring to the certain flavors of e-cigarettes that claims to be one of the principal drivers of youth appeal.
Medical experts still don’t know the potential risks of vaping, though most agree it’s safer than smoking traditional cigarettes, according to a local physician. Still, little is known about the long-term effects.
One of the goals the FDA is undertaking is an aggressive enforcement strategy targeting illegal sales to youth and kid-friendly marketing. The more than 1,300 warning letters and fines to retailers that the FDA announced today were part of a large-scale, undercover nationwide blitz to crack down on the sale of e-cigarettes to minors at both brick-and-mortar and online retailers, which was conducted from June through the end of August.
The vast majority of the violations were for the illegal sale of five e-cigarette products – Vuse, Blu, JUUL, MarkTen XL, and Logic. These five brands currently comprise over 97 percent of the U.S. market for e-cigarettes.
In addition, the 12 issued warning letter to other online retailers address the selling of misleading labeled and/or advertising e-liquids resembling kid-friendly food products such as candy and cookies. Although these products were the subject of the agency’s action in May, they are no longer being sold with the offending label nor advertised by the companies that received the letters in May.
The advertisers that received warning letters today are still advertising and selling these products. Some retailers were additionally cited for illegally selling products to minors.
The agency says they will continue to monitor and take action against companies that sell tobacco products that might mislead a young child into thinking the product is appropriate for them to consume as food and state that more compliance actions are underway.
In addition to these new actions, the FDA had previously issued more than 60 warning letters and fines to businesses that sold JUUL brand products to minors stemming from another enforcement blitz in the spring. The agency also recently sent letters to JUUL Labs and several other companies requiring them to submit important documents to better understand the reportedly high rates of youth use and the particular youth appeal of their products.
A spokesperson from JUUL Labs made the following statement to the Tribune on Thursday afternoon, September 13.
“JUUL Labs will work proactively with FDA in response to its request. We are committed to preventing underage use of our product, and we want to be part of the solution in keeping e-cigarettes out of the hands of young people.
“Our mission is to improve the lives of adult smokers by providing them with a true alternative to combustible cigarettes. Appropriate flavors play an important role in helping adult smokers switch. By working together, we believe we can help adult smokers while preventing access to minors, and we will continue to engage with the FDA to fulfill our mission.”
The FDA is currently investigating whether manufacturers introduced certain e-cigarette products to the market after Aug. 8, 2016, and may be subject to enforcement for marketing those products without premarket authorization.
The FDA is continuing to conduct checks of retail establishments that sell tobacco products to ensure compliance with federal laws. Currently the FDA has conducted 978,290 retail inspections, issued 77,180 warning letters to retailers for violating the law and initiated approximately 18,560 civil money penalty cases, as of Sept. 1, 2018. The agency states that there is a clear need for strong federal enforcement of youth access restrictions and the FDA will continue to hold retailers accountable by vigorously enforcing the law with the help of the agency’s state partners.
The agency also has issued more than 135 No-Tobacco-Sale Order Complaints, which can result in retailers being prohibited from selling tobacco products for specified periods of time.
The FDA has also expanded “The Real Cost” public education campaign with messages focused on preventing youth use of e-cigarettes. The FDA will launch a new, full-scale e-cigarette campaign targeted at youth next week.
About the FDA:
The FDA, an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, protects the public health by assuring the safety, effectiveness, and security of human and veterinary drugs, vaccines and other biological products for human use, and medical devices. The agency also is responsible for the safety and security of our nation’s food supply, cosmetics, dietary supplements, products that give off electronic radiation, and for regulating tobacco products.