The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is attempting to take action against the sale of e-cigarette products in stores accessible to minors, outlined in a policy draft they released mid-March. This policy would also take action against websites that sell e-cigarette products and do not confirm legal age or limit the amount of products sold to one person. FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb believes this policy will lead to certain flavored e-cigarette products to stop being sold completely; this excludes, however, mint, tobacco, and menthol flavored e-cigarette products as Gottlieb wants to leave these options for adults switching from traditional tobacco products to e-cigarettes. Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, does not believe this policy is sufficient damage control for the current explosion of teenage e-cigarette use, saying that “a public health crisis of this magnitude demands faster and more forceful action than the steps announced by the FDA.” Mentioning data from the Center for Disease Control (CDC), Myers also points out that more than half of adolescent e-cigarette users use menthol and mint flavored products, suggesting that leaving these flavors on the market is not an option if the goal is to stop teens from using e-cigarettes. On top of proposing a ban on flavored cigars and menthol cigarettes, Myers also proposed that the FDA “should prohibit all flavored e-cigarettes that have not been subject to public health review by the agency, halt online sales of e-cigarettes until stronger safeguards are in place to prevent sales to kids, restrict marketing that attracts kids, and enforce rules prohibiting the sale of new products without FDA authorization.”Myers continues, saying that “the restrictions on flavored e-cigarettes announced today by the FDA are a step forward, but they are inadequate to reverse the youth e-cigarette epidemic and fall short of prohibiting the flavors that have made e-cigarettes so popular with kids.”
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