America’s leading regulators aren’t doing enough to curb nicotine use among young people, a new study warns.
An analysis of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warnings issued for improperly selling nicotine products found that the agency is targeting small online retailers.
There is also a focus on refillable devices by the FDA, while official data shows that disposable devices are more popular.
A recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that 2.5 million American teens use e-cigarettes.
About 55 percent of them used a disposable device, while 84 percent used a flavored device — which the FDA has been cracking down on in recent years.
The team at the Truth Initiative Schroeder Institute writes that if the agency really wants to curb nicotine use among teens, it should target bigger players in the market.
Rather than online retailers, it instead recommends targeting brick-and-mortar stores and the companies that manufacture the goods themselves.
The FDA has been cracking down on the sale of flavored e-cigarettes in recent years, but a new report finds it’s not effectively targeting small online retailers rather than brick-and-mortar stores where teens often get their devices (file photo)
More than 2.5 million American children use e-cigarettes — a half-million increase from last year and a downward trend in recent years. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that 2.55 million Americans in middle or high school admit to using the device in the past 30 days. It’s a 500,000 or 24 percent jump from 2021. It’s the first increase since the CDC began collecting annual data in 2019.
The CDC report found that a vast majority, nearly 85 percent of teen e-cigarette users, report using flavored nicotine products. The FDA is launching flavored tobacco products in an effort to reduce smoking among teens in the US
“There must be strong, impactful and transparent consequences to prevent the sale of products that violate the regulations necessary to protect the health of adult e-cigarette users and prevent their use by young people,” the statement wrote. research group in a statement.
“The FDA should use its enforcement powers to target the manufacture, distribution, and marketers of tobacco products that have the greatest impact on youth and products that do not provide a public health benefit.”
The analysis, published in the journal Tobacco Control, found that 97 percent of FDA warning letters were sent to small retailers.
Most of these were for failing to obtain pre-market approval (PMTA), which the agency needed to sell the devices in 2016.
Under these rules, companies are not allowed to sell flavored vapor products and must obtain express approval from regulators to enter the market.
By 2021, nearly every citation sent out by the FDA was related to a PMTA violation.
While these violations were usually punishable by fines and confiscation of products, the violations were rarely forced to close.
The survey found that 72 percent of companies cited for a violation in 2020 were still operational.
Only 29 percent of those struck with a notice in 2021 are still walking – indicating an increase in the power of regulators.
Last week’s CDC report found that 2.55 million middle or high school students had used their device in the past 30 days.
That’s a 500,000 or 24 percent jump from 2021. It’s the first increase since the CDC began collecting annual data in 2019.
Super-strong disposable devices — such as Elf bars — were the most commonly used type of device (55 percent).
However, attempts by the FDA to lower these numbers are not in the right places.
Many brick-and-mortar retail locations fail to verify customer identification, allowing children to access the devices.
About 75 percent of Juuls owned by minors in the US came from physical locations, a 2018 report found it.
Many also receive the device from a friend or family member.
“While current research estimates that online sales make up about a third of the market, data tells us that most young people get their products from friends (32.3%), buy them from another person (21.5%) or buy from a vape store (22.2%),’ the researchers wrote.
“It is important to prioritize the products that young people use the most and that are made available through various sources to curb young people’s use,”