Sales of flavored electronic cigarettes and menthol cigarettes would be restricted nationally as part of a plan announced Thursday by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to combat the growing consumption of tobacco products by minors.

Minnesota anti-tobacco advocates welcomed the changes, including restricting sales to restricted-entry stores due to age, or areas within stores inaccessible to under-18s.

The state has been a leader in adopting regulations banning the sale of tobacco products to those under 21 and limiting the sale of fruit and candy-flavored electronic cigarettes to adult-only stores, said ClearWay's Laura Smith. Minnesota, a tobacco control program funded by the historic 1998 settlement with tobacco companies.

The restrictions imposed by the FDA equate to a ban on menthol sales in many convenience stores and gas stations, but not in tobacco and tobacco convenience stores, said a senior agency official. The FDA will also require an enhanced age verification for online sales.

"The bottom line is this: I will not allow a generation of children to become addicted to nicotine through the electronic cigarette," said FDA Commissioner Scott Gotlleb in a statement. communicated.

In Minnesota, the strictest restrictions on tobacco are in Minneapolis, Falcon Heights, Shoreview and Lauderdale. Cities restrict the sale of menthol cigarettes and flavored tobacco products to specialty stores in the tobacco industry and require buyers of any tobacco product to be 21 years old.

St. Paul authorizes the sale of menthol cigarettes and fruit and candy flavored products only in tobacco shops, but those who buy tobacco are only 18 years old. Other cities, such as Duluth, Robbinsdale and Mendota Heights, have restrictions on flavored tobacco sales, and more than a dozen cities, including Bloomington, North Mankato and Hermantown, require every tobacco buyer to have under 21 years old.

"I think we inspired them," said Betsy Brock, director of research at the Minnesota Association for Nonsmokers, about the FDA's plan. "But they have to do this quickly."

The FDA's tobacco action plan was released when the government released new data showing an increase in the use of e-cigarettes among minors. The 2018 National Youth Smoking Survey, conducted by the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, found that vaping has increased by 78% among high school students since last year and from nearly 48% among college students.

A recent Minnesota Ministry of Health survey found that 26% of high school students were using tobacco or nicotine. This represents a 2 percentage point increase from 2014 and was the first increase in youth smoking for 17 years.

The survey found that 1 in 5 high school students used an electronic cigarette in the last 30 days and 60% of those who used tobacco used menthol or other flavored products. Nearly one-third of young electronic cigarette users reported getting it from retailers. That's the reason why local bans and FDA action are needed, Smith said.

"We need products from where young people buy their snacks," she said.

A representative of the Minnesota Retailers Association, who had previously raised concerns about local tobacco regulations that were detrimental to businesses, did not respond to a request for comment. In the past, a representative of the group said that an average convenience store would lose more than $ 250,000 a year due to the ban on Minneapolis flavored tobacco products.

Some critics have raised the possibility of the FDA being the subject of a lawsuit trying to limit the sales of vaping products to certain types of stores.

"I do not think they know where the law allows the FDA to ban hundreds of thousands of stores from selling a legal product," said Lyle Beckwith, executive vice president of the National Association of Convenience Stores.

Gottlieb, in pursuit of his anti-smoking strategy, is keeping the flak away from his conservative colleagues.

"The administration has promised less regulation – without sacrificing protections," said Jeff Stier, senior fellow at the Consumer Choice Center.

US Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar has expressed his support for the FDA.

"We believe that the FDA's goals and policies are the right balance in public health for the multi-faceted challenge we face today," he said in a statement.

Smith, of ClearWay Minnesota, said: "The FDA should take aggressive action to combat youth addiction" and use its authority "to the greatest extent possible."

The proposed ban on menthol would be the most aggressive action that the FDA has taken against the tobacco industry in almost a decade. If it removes the usual regulatory hurdles from the federal government, a process that could take at least two years, the ban on menthol could have a significant impact on cigarette sales. Menthol cigarettes account for about 35% of cigarette sales in the United States.

The FDA crackdown on e-cigarettes has already had an impact.

Juul Labs, which accounts for more than 70% of retail sales of electronic cigarettes and has been blamed by the FDA for the bulk of the increase in the use of juveniles, announced this week that he would stop selling most of his flavored electronic cigarette capsules – particularly mango, fruit, cream and cucumber – in 90,000 outlets and improve his online coverage. The company also announced that it would stop promoting its products on social networks. And Altria announced late last month that she would stop selling her pod-flavored electronic cigarettes for the time being.