The Trump administration on Thursday announced a ban on some popular e-cigarette flavours, including fruit and mint, to curb rising teenage use of vaping products, allowing only menthol and tobacco flavours to remain on the market.
The flavour ban applies to e-cigarettes, which use disposable cartridges filled with liquid nicotine and are often sold in convenience stores.
The US department of health and human services (HHS) said companies that do not stop the manufacture, distribution and sale of flavoured cartridge-based e-cigarettes, other than tobacco or menthol, within 30 days risk enforcement actions from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Thursday’s announcement would have no impact on Juul, which has already pulled flavours except tobacco and menthol. It would force competitors still offering a wider variety of flavours, including Njoy and RJ Reynolds Tobacco Co, which makes Vuse e-cigarettes, to restrict their offerings.
“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.
“HHS is taking a comprehensive, aggressive approach to enforcing the law passed by Congress, under which no e-cigarettes are currently on the market legally,” said Mr Azar.
The HHS said manufacturers that want to market flavoured e-cigarettes or e-liquids will need to submit an application to the FDA that demonstrates the product meets applicable standards.
The flavour ban will exempt large, tank-based vaping devices, which are primarily sold in vape shops that cater to adult smokers.
Anti-tobacco advocates have condemned the decision to permit menthol and exempt tank-based vapes.
“Only the elimination of all flavoured e-cigarettes can end the worsening youth e-cigarette epidemic and stop e-cigarette companies from luring and addicting kids with flavoured products,” said Matthew Myers, of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, in a statement.
E-cigarettes are battery-powered devices that typically heat a flavoured nicotine solution into an inhalable aerosol.
The move comes as US health regulators investigate a respiratory illness tied to vaping that has caused 55 deaths and more than 2,500 hospitalisations as of Tuesday, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The deaths have raised fears surrounding vaping’s safety, but the outbreak of such cases appears to be waning.
Investigators have said there is mounting evidence that vitamin E acetate, a cutting agent used in marijuana vape cartridges, is playing a role in the illnesses. –Reuters/AP