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MADISON, Wisconsin – Significant changes could be made to the way nicotine products are sold, including traditional tobacco like cigarettes and the new trend, e-cigarettes.
New report from US Food and Drug Administration says vaping has increased by nearly 80% among high school students, so the agency proposes to change the terms of sale of electronic cigarettes and to ban menthol cigarettes.
"It does not take much to make sure you do not sell to minors," said Landon Meske, general manager of Knuckleheads Tobacco & Vapes on State Street in Madison.
Meske is used to hearing the excuses of undocumented minors seeking to buy tobacco products.
For example, "Oh, I left it in the car," he says. "Oh, go get it then."
He added, however, that it was not an excuse to allow teens to get cigarettes or e-cigarettes.
"If someone sells products to minors, whether they like it or not, it's out of negligence and laziness and that we do not care about his or her neighbor," he said. said Meske.
According to the US Food and Drug Administration, about a fifth of high school students report letting themselves go. The agency is proposing changes, including the removal of non-mint and non-tobacco flavors popular with minors from websites and store shelves with no age limit.
"At the end of the day, we know that these flavors make it easier for kids to get started on tobacco," said FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb.
Juul, the leading manufacturer of electronic cigarettes and fruit juice, has already preemptively stopped retail sales of flavored products this week.
The FDA is also considering new bans on menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars.
"This is great news," said Dr. Doug Jorenby, professor of medicine at the UW Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention.
Jorenby said that menthol cigarettes were associated with much higher rates of aggressive lung cancer.
"This certainly has a price that goes far beyond simply starting to smoke," he said, adding that the changes made good public health sense. "If this continues, the landscape will change dramatically."
At Knuckleheads, Meske says nothing will change. According to the proposals, age-limited stores like this would be among the only places allowed to sell fruity flavors of electronic juice, and Meske will continue to ensure that all customers are old enough to buy them.
"Keeping the security above all else is what we all want," he said.
Part of the conversation around vaping is the fact that many smokers use the electronic cigarette to try to quit. While Jorenby claimed there was not enough data to determine whether vaping was safer, Gottlieb said he wanted to leave the door open for adults who use e-cigarettes to quit smoking. but not at the expense of teenagers who have become addicted.
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