- On April 24, 2018, FDA announced its Youth Tobacco Prevention Plan to stop adolescent use of, and access to, vapor products. FDA followed up on its announcement by issuing 17 warning letters for marketing e-liquids in allegedly misbranded and misleading packaging found to be appealing to youth. In September, FDA announced that it has issued 1,300 warning letters and imposed civil penalties for sales of cartridge-based e-cigarettes. Also in September, FDA requested information within 60 days from JUUL Labs, and four other cartridge-based e-cigarettes, regarding how they will curb youth use. FDA has threatened to remove flavored e-liquids from the market to prevent youth uptake.
- On Tuesday October 2, FDA confirmed that it had inspected JUUL Labs on Friday September 28, obtaining more than 1,000 pages of records on marketing. Kevin Burns, CEO of JUUL Labs, issued a statement that JUUL has released over 50,000 pages of documents to FDA since April in support of its position that it markets only to adults.
- Keller and Heckman’s Tobacco and E-Vapor practice has covered FDA’s Youth Tobacco Prevention Plan extensively on The Continuum of Risk Blog. As our colleagues point out, the majority of youth use is via cartridge-based e-cigarette but a flavor ban could destroy the vapor industry.
- Two prominent e-vapor trade associations, American E-Liquids Manufacturing Standards Association (AEMSA) and the Smoke-Free Alternatives Tobacco Association (SFATA), jointly developed a youth prevention program, the Youth Education, Protection, and Prevention (YEPP) program. The YEPP program includes (1) youth education about the dangers of vaping and material discouraging vaping by young people, (2) parental education to identify the signs of youth vaping and use of vapor products, (3) tools to help parents talk with their kids about vaping, and (4) retailer training to prevent minor sales.