Big Tobacco Gets Big Pushback

Retailers can no longer sell electronic cigarettes, hookah tobacco, or cigars to people under the age of 18, the Food and Drug Administration announced today.

The FDA, in essence, now has authority over all tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, cigars, hookah tobacco, and pipe tobacco. The rule goes into effect in 90 days, and specifies that tobacco products cannot be sold to people under 18 in person or online. Covered tobacco products in vending machines are banned unless they are in an adult-only facility, and free samples may not be distributed.

Adults must have a photo identification card to verify their age.

Dr. E. Neil Schachter, a professor of pulmonary medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, said he’s pleased that the FDA is playing catch-up on long-overdue e-cigarette regulations.

“It’s addicting, it’s potentially dangerous, and it targets young people,” he said of e-cigarettes. Banning them completely until researchers can confirm some of the health impacts would likely be the more reasonable thing to do — but that’s not going to happen, he said.

He said there is a perception of e-cigarettes that they make the smoker sophisticated — similar to the way traditional cigarettes were perceived when they first hit the market.

[lz_ndn video =30717222]

“That idea has to be combated,” he said.

“There’s no end to the creativeness that the tobacco industry can develop to hook a new generation of basically addicts to nicotine,” Schachter added.

Despite the new rule, he believes children under 18 will still be able to get their hands on e-cigarettes and other tobacco products.

“I’m sure they’re still going to get it. It’s not like there’s nobody under 18 who’s not [sic] smoking cigarettes these days,” Schachter said, adding it’s just “going to be more difficult.”

“We have more to do to help protect Americans from the dangers of tobacco and nicotine, especially our youth. As cigarette smoking among those under 18 has fallen, the use of other nicotine products, including e-cigarettes, has taken a drastic leap,” said Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell at a press conference. “All of this is creating a new generation of Americans who are at risk of addiction.”

“It’s a welcome development,” said Dr. Vaughan W. Rees, director of Harvard’s Center for Global Tobacco Control.

[lz_related_box id=”133931″]

He said the move will benefit the public health and help protect youth, but is concerned it will not do enough. The rule is not restricting the flavors that make e-cigarettes so appealing to kids, he said. Clearly, he noted, the flavors are directed at a younger crowd.

While he likes the fact that more warning labels will be required, he still has concerns about how products are advertised to young people — and the lack of limitations on advertising. “They don’t go as far as they could,” he said of the new regulations.

The rule mandates that manufacturers of all newly regulated products that have come out since 2007 must show that the products meet the applicable public health standard set forth in the law and receive marketing authorization from the FDA — unless the product was on the market as of Feb. 15, 2007. This product review will give the FDA the ability to evaluate product design, ingredients, health risks, and appeal to youth and non-users.

The FDA expects that manufacturers will continue selling their products for up to two years while they submit — and an additional year while the FDA reviews — new tobacco product applications.

E-cigarette use among high school students soared from 1.5 percent in 2011 to 16 percent in 2015 — an increase of over 900 percent. In 2015, three million middle and high school students were current e-cigarette users, and data showed that high school boys smoked cigars at about the same rate as cigarettes. Additionally, a study by the FDA and the National Institutes of Health showed that in 2013-2014, nearly 80 percent of current youth tobacco users reported using a flavored tobacco product in the past 30 days.