What the ban on electronic cigarette aromas could mean for Big Tobacco

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will prevent gas stations and convenience stores from preventing the sale of e-cigarette products to child-friendly tastes, according to a report by The Washington Post. The ban, which is expected to be announced next week, is a milestone in the fight against what the FDA calls a vape epidemic among young people. But depending on the course of the ban, this could also be a major victory for Big Tobacco.

This is not a general ban on vapes, according to the To post, which quotes an anonymous FDA official. Gas stations and convenience stores may continue to sell mint or menthol pods, but not mango or nectar-flavored pods. (It is unclear if tobacco flavorings will be allowed.) Flavored product sales may still be allowed in tobacco and tobacco stores as well as in online stores with strict age verification settings. . Vape stores will still be allowed to continue selling open-tank vapes and bottled liquids. To post reports.

We do not know exactly how the ban will work or if there will be one. (The FDA does not comment.) However, if the ban on To post describes the following steps, this will affect the vapos of closed systems in general. This will affect Juul the hardest, said Jidong Huang, an associate professor at Georgia State University, specializing in the economics of tobacco control. Part of Juul's appeal lies in its flavors, he says. And because Juul has dominated over 70% of the electronic cigarette market, cutting it to the knees is good news for other tobacco companies whose vape is not as competitive.

In addition, smoking is at its lowest level. Public health experts say that we can not definitively attribute the drop in the number of smokers to vaping, but the majority of adults who use e-cigarettes also use cigarettes, which means that tobacco companies lose it. Market analysts say that what is bad for Juul is good for tobacco companies, including those who make their own vows. "We continue to believe that any FDA action to limit the sale of e-cigarettes to minors will benefit tobacco companies," said Bonnie Herzog, executive director of equity research at Wells Fargo Securities LLC, in an analysis. by e-mail. "So we expect tobacco stocks to trade up."

Unlike brands such as Blu, Vuse and MarkTen, Juul is independent of major tobacco companies. It is unlikely that the draw of flavored vapor cartridges from convenience stores will reach Big Tobacco, Huang said. After all, tobacco giant Altria has decided to draw its own flavored products before the Washington PostThe scoop. "It's not because they support public health; it's because it does not affect their results, "says Huang. "It is very likely that this ban will benefit the tobacco industry as a whole."

James Campbell, spokesman for Fontem Ventures, the company behind Blu e-cigs and a subsidiary of the tobacco company Imperial Brands PLC, also believes the ban could be good for business. "A lot of our sales are tobacco, menthol and mint, and we have several product formats," says Campbell in an email to The edge. "So we will come out as competitive or more competitive than before."

Spokespeople for British American Tobacco (the company behind Vuse Vape) and JT International (the company behind Logic) said they waited for the FDA's official plan before speculating on its effects. Altria did not immediately respond to a request by e-mail. Juul refused to comment – although the the Wall Street newspaper reports that Juul is already taking steps to take his children's tastes off the retail shelves. It seems that the giant of the e-cigarette could comply with the FDA without a fight.

The ban is intended to address the major public health concerns of a generation of young people who are interested in vaping and nicotine. Regarding public health, Huang predicted that the effects of such a ban would be mitigated: it would restrict sales in retail stores and reduce youth vaping, but it could be more difficult for adults to switch from combustible cigarettes to electronic cigarettes. "What's complicated is that kids love tastes, but these are also popular with adult smokers," says Huang.

Nevertheless, although we know that flavored vods are important starting products for children, the jury has not yet determined the importance of flavors in helping adults to give up their habit of smoking. It is true that for an adult smoker, e-cigarettes are considered less harmful than regular cigarettes, according to a massive report from the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine. The problem is that a growing number of children are using them. Although the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the FDA have not published the latest figures, FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said the data revealed an "e-cigarette consumption epidemic among adolescents."

It is unclear what the ban actually prohibits as the FDA declined to comment. the To post did not specify, for example, whether the FDA also intended to stop the sale of flavored cigar and cigarillos, which Desmond Jenson, a lawyer at the Mitchell Hamline School of Law's Public Health Law Center, would have interest to include.

"When you talk to non-public health people about cigars, people imagine Winston Churchill with a big stogy in their mouth, but that's not what we're talking about," says Jenson. Cigars can come in many different shapes and flavors, including Black & Milds, Swisher Sweets and other cigar-like cigars. They do not get the same attention as electronic cigarettes and a lot less people use them, he says. "But everyone agrees that fuel products are the most dangerous."

Huang is concerned that these could possibly be omitted from a flavor ban, as we have seen how bans can have some training effects in the past. When the FDA banned the sale of flavored cigarettes, for example, more people turned to still legal menthol cigarettes, as well as to cigars and flavored pipes, according to an article published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. "You actually see an increase in sales of cigar and flavored cigarillos after the 2009 Tobacco Control Act," Huang said.

That's why Huang believes that the e-cigarette ban on gas stations and convenience stores should go further. "They should also ban the sale of all combustible tobacco products, in addition to flavored electronic cigarettes," he said. This would discourage children from vaping, he adds. "But it also encourages adult smokers to switch from combustible cigarettes to electronic cigarettes." Jenson agrees that the ban on flavors that only concerns electronic cigarettes does not go far enough. "If we only talk about electronic cigarettes and not cigars," he says, "it's a missed opportunity for the FDA."