FDA outlines e-cigarette rules

Posted by freemexy on April 18th, 2019

Outgoing Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb released the agency’s much-anticipated policy restricting Electronic Cigarette sales on Wednesday — designed to tighten sales and eventually remove from the market many of the fruity flavors he’s blamed on fueling “epidemic” levels of teen use.

“We think flavored products represent greater risk to youth appeal, so when we’re looking at the public health value and redeeming qualities of products, we generally feel flavors have more to prove at this point,” Gottlieb said Wednesday in an interview. “They’re the ones driving youth use so we want to do a proper evaluation through our assessment process.”

The proposal, which is now open for public comment for 30 days, outlines new restrictions for most flavored e-cigarettes, speeds the agency’s deadline to review flavored nicotine products and allows it to pull e-cigarettes from the market. If finalized, the change will likely remove some flavored e-cigarettes and cigars from stores, the FDA said.

It also would limit sales of flavored nicotine pods to websites, vape shops and other retailers that impose age restrictions. The FDA, which previously decided not to take enforcement actions while reviewing e-cigarettes, is now reversing that stance — but just for the fruity flavors many believe attract underage users, such as bubble gum, mango and creme.

The FDA plans to crack down on products that are likely to entice kids, such as those designed to look like juice boxes or candy, indicating it could remove them from stores altogether. The agency could further tweak its guidelines. Gottlieb said the FDA could even specify that popular pod-based products can be sold only if they receive FDA clearance.