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FDA Chief Considers Ban of All Flavored E-Cigarettes (wsj.com)

Posted by msmash on from the tough-stand dept.

Calling a surge in teen use of e-cigarettes an epidemic, the head of the Food and Drug Administration says he is considering pulling all flavored e-cigarettes from the U.S. market. From a report: After years of declining U.S. smoking rates, sales of e-cigarettes have jumped in the past year, fueled in part by online startups selling vaporizers and nicotine-laced liquids. The most popular brand, Juul, sells refills with mango, cucumber and creme flavors. Each $4 pod contains as much nicotine as a pack of cigarettes. "The number of teenagers we believe are now using these products... has reached an epidemic proportion," said FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, who is expected to announce new measures Wednesday to curb underage use. Dr. Gottlieb said he believes that certain flavors make the products appealing to teens. "The availability of e-cigarettes cannot come at the expense of addicting a new generation of youth onto nicotine, and it won't," he said in an interview. Alternative source, and official announcement.

19 of 341 comments (clear)

  1. Ban cigs by datavirtue · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Ban cigarettes while your at it dipshit.

    --
    I object to power without constructive purpose. --Spock
    1. Re:Ban cigs by BlueStrat · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Ban cigarettes while your at it dipshit.

      That's not going to happen.

      As a matter of fact, all this hand-wringing about teens vaping is just smoke to cover the fact that the government wants to find an excuse to ban e-cigs and vaping because it's seriously cutting into tobacco sales and especially hurting the creation of new teen smokers, not to mention all the federal and State tobacco & cigarette taxes the government is losing out on, and stands to see even more losses if teens take up vaping instead of smoking tobacco.

      The government would much rather see Dick and Jane. See Dick and Jane with a 3-pack-a-day habit. See Dick and Jane pay thousands in tobacco taxes every year. Watch Dick and Jane get lung cancer and spend many tens of thousands on medical treatment and hospice costs. See the Government and healthcare providers run away with pockets bulging with cash. Run, merchants of death, run!

      Strat

      --
      Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
    2. Re:Ban cigs by gnick · · Score: 3, Funny

      ...you can use a 0 level nicotine juice and skip the addicting factor all together.

      My vape cartridge is 0 nicotine. Plenty of THC though. I wish I could have brought that with me to high school.

      --
      He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.
  2. Sounds good to me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    No one wants to walk though your cloud of second-hand blueberry fumes!

    1. Re:Sounds good to me by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 5, Insightful

      No one wants to walk though your cloud of second-hand blueberry fumes!

      No they don't, but I don't want to listen to someone's rap music playing out a car window, or smell someone with BO, or taste ketchup that was put on my burger.

      Not wanting to experience something that other people do want to experience is not reason for it to be illegal. Banning flavoured vapes because some teens are getting it illegal is not right in my opinion. Target people illegally selling it, or giving it to kids if you want. Tax the stuff if you want.

      I don't like smoke or vaping- but I'm not for making it illegal. If they do it in the privacy of their own properties and don't expose others- and are well-informed of the consequences, then people should be allowed to smoke or vape if they want. I don't approve of banning things just because they're unpopular with the masses.

      One day, something I like doing which is unpopular with the masses might be next on the chopping block. Let people have their vices if it isn't hurting anyone else. And yeah... do things to keep it out the hands of underage teens who have not yet reached adult age.

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    2. Re:Sounds good to me by Anubis+IV · · Score: 3, Informative

      I was sitting out on a patio at a restaurant last week, with a college-aged guy doing some form of smoking at the table next to us. We had maple-bacon smoke wafting over us for the better part of 30 minutes as he blew big, billowing plumes for his own amusement.

      Maple-bacon scented patios may sound like some people's idea of a pleasant evening, but as someone with asthma, it's not unusual for me to feel my airways closing up when I'm exposed to strong scents, which I've had happen before with e-cigs and vaporizers. Thankfully, nothing happened this time, so it was little more than a random thing that happened that evening, but I don't want to see a return to the way things were a few decades ago. People always talk about the big risks when it comes to this stuff—addiction, cancer, death—but we shouldn't forget that there's a significant decrease in the quality of life for others when being able to breathe easily is something they need to concern themselves with.

    3. Re:Sounds good to me by sjames · · Score: 4, Informative

      There's ample reason to ban public cologne and perfume as well, but it hasn't happened. At least the vapers stop emitting the vape when they go inside.

  3. That will work for some but not all products. by FilmedInNoir · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Sure, you can regulate pre-made juice and disposable e-cigs but refillable e-cigs allows me the option to purchase the individual components to make my own e-juice.

    --
    Sig. Sig. Sputnik
  4. Re:Why have nocotine at all? by Gilgaron · · Score: 3, Informative

    Not applicable to teens, perhaps, but it has helped my dad quit smoking and slowly decrease the nicotine content over time. Addiction aside, it is a stimulant, so there's that as something people might like.

  5. Re:Why have nocotine at all? by registrations_suck · · Score: 3, Insightful

    So....here we have a situation where:

    1). People want the nicotine.
    2). Companies have an incentive to provide it.

    So what's baffling about these e-cigarettes having nicotine?

    The baffling and just crazy part is you thinking it is any of your business.

  6. Re:Why have nocotine at all? by DarkRookie · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I know some that have switched to vape because it is cheaper than cigarettes.

    --
    The millennial that doesn't like most of the stuff designed for millennials.
  7. Milking It by sycodon · · Score: 4, Insightful

    They do seem to be milking this situation in the most hypocritical way.

    On the one hand, restrict, preach, shame.

    On the other, tax, tax, tax.

    --
    When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
    1. Re:Milking It by sycodon · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It's like when you don't take all your antibiotics. The infection never really goes away and eventually comes back stronger.

      In this case, they are supposedly trying to suppress it through taxation, but they never tax enough to effectively kill it. Instead, they only tax to the point where there is minimal black market activity. So...keeping it alive. or course they still allow the manufacture and sale of cigarettes.

      --
      When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
    2. Re:Milking It by gnick · · Score: 3, Informative

      Because the consequences of abandoning tobacco are far less dire than the consequences of abandoning employment.

      --
      He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.
    3. Re:Milking It by omnichad · · Score: 3, Funny

      with the bass on the radios shaking the town

      You know, that never bothers me. But what does bother me is not bothering to put basic dampening on your trunk. It's the rattling metal that's annoying.

    4. Re:Milking It by Curunir_wolf · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Why is suppression through taxation hypocritical? It's one of several methods of discouragement. Hypocritical because people benefit?

      Thanks to the "deal" with big tobacco companies, a lot more revenue comes in to state and federal governments for cigarette sales. Banning e-cigarettes is a way to create greater demand for (much more dangerous) cigarettes.

      It's interesting that the British NHS service is lately encouraging the use of e-cigarettes as a harm reduction strategy, while in the US, due to funding streams and corruption, health agencies are producing propaganda claiming that e-cigarettes are just as bad as cigarettes.

      --
      "Somebody has to do something. It's just incredibly pathetic it has to be us."
      --- Jerry Garcia
  8. I agree by ilsaloving · · Score: 5, Funny

    I have to say I agree with this.

    There's nothing worse than smelling donuts or cotton candy, and you turn the corner thinking "Mmmm I'm gonna treat myself to something tasty!"

    But no... It's just Brad and his cloud of LIES.

  9. Re:Why have nocotine at all? by Kielistic · · Score: 4, Informative

    Why stop there? Ban all caffeine too! It is addictive and has the same risk factors as nicotine. Plus all those sugary caffeinated drinks are clearly marketed solely to get children addicted.

    Nicotine in vape liquid is not "to get people addicted". It is because people want nicotine. People like nicotine because it is a stimulant. Nicotine is addictive because it is a stimulant and because people like it.

  10. Re:Controls a 3 pack a day habit.... by FlipperPA · · Score: 4, Informative

    Here here. This move completely ignores the fact that sales are only for those over 18, and the science on the issue: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/e-cigarettes-around-95-less-harmful-than-tobacco-estimates-landmark-review

    Nicotine on its own is much like caffeine: highly addictive, but not that harmful. It's the other crap in cigarettes that kills you. Vaping has no carcinogens.

    But don't let science get in the way of some good political FUD, eh?