His group and several others are suing the FDA over a decision to delay federal review of most e-cigarettes. “I think it became clear to FDA that if they didn’t get their arms around this issue the use of these products by kids across the nation would undo decades of progress,” said Matthew Myers of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. They noted the survey did not ask specifically about Juul, a sleek, heavily-marketed e-cigarette brand that exploded onto the market and accounts for 70 percent of U.S. Some experts were cautious about the results, however. In June, a government survey found teen vaping seemed to be holding steady last year.
“Hindsight, and the data that’s now available to us, fully reveal these trends.” “We didn’t foresee the extent of what’s now become one of our biggest challenges,” he said, in prepared remarks. Gottlieb cited unreleased federal figures that he says will be made public in coming months. A government-commissioned report in January found “substantial evidence” that young people who use e-cigarettes are more likely to try cigarettes. Health advocates have worried about the popularity of vaping products among kids and the potential impact on smoking rates in the future.
They typically contain nicotine, and sometimes flavorings like fruit, mint or chocolate. But health officials have warned nicotine in e-cigarettes is harmful to developing brains. They’re generally considered a less dangerous alternative to regular cigarettes. despite little research on their long-term effects, including whether they are helpful in helping smokers quit. The FDA said it remains committed to exploring e-cigarettes as a less-harmful alternative for adult smokers, but Gottlieb added “that work can’t come at the expense of kids.”Į-cigarettes are vapor-emitting devices that have grown into a multi-billion dollar industry in the U.S.
“The disturbing and accelerating trajectory of use we’re seeing in youth and the resulting path to addiction must end,” Gottlieb told agency staffers and reporters. Since 2017, FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb has discussed e-cigarettes as a potential tool to ween adult smokers off cigarettes, although that benefit hasn’t been proven.īut Gottlieb said in an address at FDA headquarters that he failed to predict the current “epidemic of addiction” among youth, mainly driven by flavored products. It marks a shift in the agency’s tone on e-cigarettes. The warning from the Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday cited recent data pointing to a sharp rise in underage use of the devices, including Juul, Vuse and others. health officials are sounding the alarm about teenage use of e-cigarettes, calling the problem an “epidemic” and ordering manufacturers to reverse the trend or risk having their flavored vaping products pulled from the market. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated. This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated.