FDA struggles for Juul, other electronic cigarette manufacturers

By Steven Reinberg

HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, Sept. 12, 2018 (HealthDay News) – Calling the use of electronic cigarettes as a thriving epidemic among teens, the US Food and Drug Administration announced Wednesday a crackdown on the sale of Juuls and others electronic cigarette devices to minors.

More than 1,200 warning letters and fines were sent to retailers and the top five manufacturers of electronic cigarettes who illegally sold Juul devices, which looked like USB sticks, and other electronic cigarette products to minors. Companies have 60 days to come up with plans to stop these sales or the FDA could consider banning the sale of all flavored electronic cigarette products, the agency said.

"The worrying and accelerated trajectory we are seeing in young people and the path to addiction must stop," FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb said at a news conference. "We are seriously considering a policy change that would lead to the elimination of these flavored products from the market."

Manufacturers of the top five brands of electronic cigarettes have received warning letters from the FDA, he said. All of these brands – juul, vuse, MarkTen, blu e-cigs and logic – constitute the majority of products illegally sold to minors, the agency said. Retailers targeted by the FDA include 7-Eleven stores, Circle K convenience stores and Shell service stations.

In addition, the agency's plan includes a series of measures to prevent youth from using tobacco products, including electronic cigarettes. According to the FDA, more than 2 million high school and high school students were regular users of e-cigarettes last year.

"Our youth smoking prevention plan focuses on three key strategies," Gottlieb said. "First, prevent youth access to tobacco products Secondly, limit the marketing of tobacco products to youth Finally, educate teens about the dangers of using tobacco-related products."

Although Gottlieb believes that e-cigarettes can help some adults quit smoking traditional cigarettes, he fears that e-cigarettes pose health risks, including nicotine release at levels higher than conventional cigarettes.

Nicotine is not a benign chemical, Gottlieb said. The developing adolescent brain is particularly vulnerable to nicotine addiction, he noted.

"The FDA will not tolerate that an entire generation of young people become addicted to nicotine to allow adults to have unlimited access to these same products," he said.

Gottlieb said that electronic cigarette manufacturers have plenty of time to change their habits.

"It has been more than a year since I warned the e-cigarette industry that it needs to do a lot more to stop these trends," he said.

"In my opinion, they treated these issues as a public relations challenge rather than seriously considering their legal obligations, the public health mandate and the existential threat to these products, and as they did," they said. said Gottlieb.

And some of the retailers who have received warning letters are still advertising and selling these products, he said.

An FDA manufacturer, Juul Labs, said in a statement: "JUUL Labs will work proactively with the FDA to meet this demand, we are committed to preventing the minor use of our product, and we want to be part of the solution keep electronic cigarettes out of reach of young people. "

Fontem Ventures, manufacturer of blu, issued a similar statement. "We support and advocate for legislation banning the sale of vaping products to minors and FDA enforcement measures against retailers selling electronic vapors and other tobacco products to minors", said the company.

But the FDA said it was also seeking to know if the manufacturers of electronic cigarettes had introduced new products after August 8, 2016, without prior approval of marketing.

The agency said it continued to check tobacco retail stores, in order to make sure they were complying with federal laws.

The measures announced Wednesday are only the first elements of these new efforts, said Gottlieb.

Manufacturers say they've changed since the time of Joe Camel, he said.

"But look what's happening right now, on our watch, and on their watch, they have to demonstrate that they're really committed to keeping these new products out of reach of children, and they have to find a way to reverse this trend, "Gottlieb said.