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A report by the FDA and CDC found that that number of middle and high school students using e-cigarettes rose to 3.6 million – 1.5 million more than the previous year.(MARK RALSTON/AFP/Getty Images)
The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday announced it was restricting the sale of all flavored e-cigarettes and seeking to ban menthol in cigarettes.
Dr. Scott Gottlieb, commissioner of the FDA, said in the announcement that flavored e-cigarettes would now be “sold in age-restricted, in-person locations and, if sold online, under heightened practices for age verification.”
The restrictions apply to only flavored devices, which are more appealing to younger users, and not tobacco, mint and menthol flavors or non-flavored products. According to Gottlieb, this “distinction among flavors seeks to maintain access for adult users of these products.”
The push to limit the sales of e-cigarettes to youth comes on the heels of a report published by the FDA and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The 2018 National Youth Tobacco Survey conducted among middle and high school students found “astonishing increases in kid’s use” of the devices.
The report found a 78 percent increase in use among high school students from 2017 to 2018 and a 48 percent increase in use among middle schoolers. The total number of middle and high school students using e-cigarettes rose to 3.6 million – 1.5 million more than the previous year.
“These increases must stop. And the bottom line is this: I will not allow a generation of children to become addicted to nicotine through e-cigarettes,” Gottlieb said. “We won’t let this pool of kids, a pool of future potential smokers, of future disease and death, to continue to build. We’ll take whatever action is necessary to stop these trends from continuing.”
In addition to sales restrictions, the FDA is seeking to “advance a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would seek to ban menthol in combustible tobacco products,including cigarettes and cigars.” A policy to ban flavors in cigars has also been proposed.
Gottlieb said he has a “deep commitment to protecting the health of our nation’s children” and the agency will continue its efforts to curb the growing use of harmful e-cigarettes among adolescents.
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