The ban on flavored electronic cigarettes could explode on the face of the FDA

FScott Gottlieb, Commissioner for Health and Drug Administration, believes a new epidemic is raging in the country. No, it's not opioids, nor drunk driving – it's the use of e-cigarettes in teens. The Commissioner's solution? Completely remove "flavored e-cig products from the market," according to a comment he made to the press on September 12. The FDA claims that some electronic cigarette perfumes attract teens to tobacco and claim that it hurts their health. In fact, banning these flavors will not reduce tobacco dependence – it will only make the situation worse.

The idea that e-cigarettes are as harmful as ordinary cigarettes is simply misinformed. A 2018 study by National Academies of Science found that e-cigarettes were far less dangerous than cigarettes, cigars and other traditional tobacco products. A study from the University of Catania goes even further, concluding that the consumption of electronic cigarettes does not affect human health. Electronic cigarettes are less harmful because ordinary cigarettes burn substances that release many negative chemicals like tar, unlike electronic cigarettes.

Of course, the consumption of electronic cigarettes has a negative impact on health, but the FDA is mistaken when it insists that the use of e-cigarettes in adolescents is associated with the use of e-cigarettes. use of other tobacco products. In fact, according to the Centers for Disease and Control, since 2011, e-cigarettes have replaced the most harmful tobacco products among high school students. Most importantly, the use of any tobacco product, including electronic cigarettes, has increased from over one in four high school students to less than one in five.

This means that electronic cigarettes have been used for the glory days of smoking. Yes, a ban on flavored electronic cigarettes could reduce their use in teenagers – but, probably, it would also increase their use of old products that have always proven their nuisance much more. How is this a victory for the FDA – or more importantly, the public?

In addition, the FDA will not solve the problem of smoking in schools simply by banning a product. For example, marijuana, an illegal drug for all minors and legal for adults in some states, is still used by almost 40% of Grade 12 students, a record high. A ban on electronic cigarette flavorings would not be different from this one. And, for students already prone to breaking the rules, a flavor ban will only encourage them to put other cigarettes in their electronic cigarettes that could easily hurt them. At a time when teens are eating tidal pods, the lack of safe flavoring options could cause teens to give e-cigarettes a dangerous flavor. Will they start injecting flavored chemicals into their electronic cigarette liquid? It is even possible that a black market of dangerous and illegal flavored chemicals may appear.

The FDA also argues that e-cigarettes, particularly those with flavors, are a way to start smoking. While this may be true in some cases, it leaves out many adults who quit smoking because of e-cigarettes. A study conducted in 2018 by the UK Center for Substance Use Research concluded that 137 adults quit smoking for each one of them because of the use of the electronic cigarette. In addition, almost two-thirds of adult smokers who participated in the study and started using electronic cigarettes no longer smoke.

Without a plethora of electronic cigarette aromas, the traditional desire to smoke among adult vapors would increase dramatically. A study published in the International Journal of Environmental and Public Health Research surveyed approximately 4,500 former smokers who switched to e-cigarettes and found that among former smokers, flavor changes and numerous options helped them quit smoking. . The study also found that half of the vapers said fewer options would increase their desire to smoke – in addition to the 40% who said they would be less likely to reduce or quit if there were fewer flavors. There were 10.8 million vapors of adults in 2016. Nine million of them were former smokers or current smokers of regular cigarettes – so it is clear that a ban Aromas of electronic cigarettes could prevent millions of smokers from stopping or even pushing them to relapse.

Gottlieb is correct in saying that minors should not use electronic cigarettes. But they also should not smoke marijuana, drink or do many other things that they do often. If the agency succeeds, all that is bad for the miners would be downright forbidden for everyone. The FDA may want to prevent teenagers from making bad decisions, but if it bans flavored electronic cigarettes to everyone, it will only make things worse.

Daniel Di Martino (@DanielDiMartino) is an economics student at Indiana Purdue University in Indianapolis and has worked with Young Voices. He is from Venezuela.