President Joe Biden recently highlighted his administration’s efforts to ensure tobacco products don’t hook too many young people at an early age. Unfortunately, however, a federal oversight is undermining Biden’s efforts to keep these products out of kids’ hands.
Delaware’s lawmakers understand the dangers nicotine vapor products pose to our children. In 2019, they passed the Youth Access law, prohibiting the sale of nicotine vapor products to anyone under 21. However, despite the state’s valiant efforts to restrict youth access, federal law continues to jeopardize the effectiveness of this important legislation.
Three years ago, the Trump administration’s Food and Drug Administration issued a policy that cracked down on the sale of flavored nicotine vapors. However, it inadvertently exempted disposable nicotine vapor products — the clear favorite among Delaware’s youth — by excluding it from the definition of ENDS products. As a result, our kids can still access these nicotine vapor products in flavors like cotton candy and raspberry ice from corner stores, friends or other sources. So it shouldn’t surprise anyone that disposable nicotine vapor product usage among high school students has spiked dramatically since then.
Recognizing what this oversight will mean for Delaware’s youth smoking epidemic, Sen. Tom Carper and Sen. Chris Coons sent a letter to the FDA shortly after the release of this policy requesting that it be closed. They made it clear that “these products [flavored nicotine vapors] have not undergone a scientific review by the FDA of their impact on public health” and that “leaving them on the market will place millions of children at risk of addiction.”
Delaware’s senators are right: a recent Yale study found that inhaling vapor from flavored e-cigarette liquid exposes them to once undetected chemical byproducts.
Our children are not just at casual risk of obtaining these products; they are being targeted to no end. As the American Cancer Society put it, “products with flavors like cherry, grape, cotton candy, and gummy bear are clearly not aimed at established, adult tobacco users and years of tobacco industry documents confirm the intended use of flavors to target youth.” Our children have said time and time again that these flavors are why they use tobacco products, and they’re setting them up for a lifetime’s worth of addictions and health problems.
The Biden administration and the FDA should take quick action to address this youth protection gap because time is of the essence.
Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, the former head of a key congressional subcommittee with jurisdiction on this issue, explained what the Biden administration needs to do succinctly. He said, “you have to make sure that disposable cigarettes are subject to the same flavor ban that all other products are subject to.”
Given their track records of safeguarding the public’s health interests, Delaware residents have every reason to believe that President Biden, FDA Commissioner Robert Califf and Doctor Brian King will close this Trump-era loophole on disposable nicotine vapor products. Here’s hoping they do so without delay.
Mike Payan is the co-founder of Sussex Health & Environmental Network and the vice chair for the Sussex County Democratic Party.
