As a consumer you are violating my right to pick my preference to quit smoking cigarettes, big pharma is not to make that pick for me. I am an adult who has been vaping for 4 years, in that time I have not had an upper respiratory infection. It is true , children should not have access to e-cigs, but I am not child I am an adult who likes to vape different flavors. Now the government is trying to force me back on to real cigarettes, to please big pharma. The government should not be allowed to force me to consumer something against my will, considering this: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5800174/ The big pharma propaganda needs to end and end now.
I realize: guns, neonazis, jihadists, and trump get all the press now a days but we need some perspective. Tobacco kills and sickens more people than all other preventable causes in this country every year, over 500,000. If we’re really serious about health care we should either ban this poison or at least make it prohibitively expensive and use that money to treat the diseases it causes.
If history tells us anything, it's that the way to keep people from using a drug is to persuade them that it's undesirable. And yet time and time again, we demonstrate that we haven't learned that lesson.
Prohibition doesn't work. It didn't work with alcohol, it didn't work with marijuana. It didn't work with crack, and it didn't work with heroin. And it never worked to prevent kids from getting their hands on cigarettes. So why in the world do we think that it's going to work with vapes?
We have achieved a remarkable turnaround in the number of people who smoke not by banning nicotine, but by educating people on its harmful effects. Gradually, public opinion shifted until today, teenagers think it's anything but cool to smoke.
We could do the same thing with vaping as we did with smoking -- emphasize the addiction, portray it as a treatment for elderly losers who can't stop smoking rather than as something glamorous and cool. But instead, we're going to pass some laws that will merely create a black market and make vaping seem even more desirable to kids.
Drugs for children. Tobacco company CEO's no doubt lament the perfidy of drug cartels. Purveyors of tobacco, oxycontin, cocaine & heroin all profit from the same thing, addiction and misery.
Honestly, people, It's just another Cancer Stick. Put it down!
Nasty habit. Nasty addiction.
"The F.D.A. will still allow sales of flavored e-cigarettes as long as the products are inaccessible to youths."
And I have some Florida swampland for sale at a great price!
The FDA should ban all flavoring in cigarettes and e-cigs not just menthol or a specific flavor. A partial ban will only cause the manufacturers to invent new flavors that get around the ban so that they can continue addicting new users.
Cigarettes have been used for their sedative properties in mental hospitals and prisons - and the military. What will replace :"Let's take a break. Let's Kool it. Grab your cigarettes."?
It's beyond horrifying the FDA has to parse vaping flavors for kids. Vaping is nicotine delivery, which leads to habituation and smoking. Period.
3
Good intentions but everyone knows that teens will get and use these devices if any adult can. You have to teach and then reenforce the lessons so that people know what they are doing to themselves and others before they will self regulate their behaviors. Laws and rules are just social aspirations that will not have much effect, otherwise.
Our ruling elite never learns. Such simple thinking has never worked, yet they do it over, and over again. If they only put the energy into making laws and they do to avoid them.
1
In January 17, 1920 the Eighteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution effectively established the prohibition of alcoholic beverages in the United States by declaring the production, transport, and sale of alcohol illegal. However, Americans wanted to drink booze so the Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution repealed the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The Twenty-first Amendment was ratified on December 5, 1933. It is unique among the 27 amendments of the U.S. Constitution for being the only one to repeal a prior amendment and to have been ratified by state ratifying conventions.
Supreme court legalizes recreational marijuana, and soon to follow recreational heroin and recreational cocaine.
Americans want more drugs and alcohol.
"But Mr. Chowdhury considered Juul’s pre-emptive move to limit visible flavors to mint, menthol and tobacco shrewd. If indeed a ban on menthol cigarettes is enacted, he said, “Juul is in a good position to offer an alternative product for smokers who are used to their menthol flavor. Because Juul has market dominance, they stand to benefit from an ultimate ban.”"
The bottom line is that this is about the bottom line for an industry that is allowed to sell addictive and health damaging products with support for the highest bidder by our government. The same government and agencies that should be assuring that products that can addict and kill people and cost citizens untold amounts of tax dollars in preventable healthcare are regulated to prevent those things from happening. I firmly believe that people are within their rights to smoke, thus getting addicted. Our government should not be complicit in facilitating the companies who sell nicotine products that assure that they do, nor should we be paying to mitigate the negative health consequences with out tax dollars.
I started smoking at 11 years old and I got it from other adults. I did every type of illegal drug you can think of. Thank God I am sober now I am 28 years old And been for years. Something being illegal never stopped me. I went to clubs and bars and strip clubs. Always found a way to get in. My Mom wasn't really around so it made it easy for me to do this. And my Dad didn't live with us. If my Mom would have been there I would have never used anything. I was angry with my Mom at the time and I wanted to hurt her but I was hurting myself by doing everything I wasn't suppose to. To get her attention and yes teens are not the brightest. Now we have a good relationship. But my point is something being illegal never stopped me from getting it. Parents need to be there for those teens if not banning something will not do anything. I had friends who parents were strict and they didn't do drugs nor smoke or anything like that. My experience is banning something doesn't work. Teens will always find a way or do something worse. Parents need to pay attention and love their children and that will go a long way. Punishment never hurt anyone there has to be a consequence for bad behavior and a benefit for good behavior. Get your children in sports or anything they like. Their minds will be too occupied to think of doing stuff they are not suppose to. Be involved in their lives and don't be afaird to talk to them.
2
Forget about your cardiovascular system. The way to get men to quit tobacco is to discus the function of their favorite organ. Nicotine damages the tiny structures in the penis and can lead to permanent erectile dysfunction. All the vaping products can offer is a higher dose of nicotine possibly accelerating the destruction of these delicate blood vessels. I learned long ago to emphasize men’s sexual health over their cardiac condition as a way to motivate ending smoking.
I'm a chronically ill adult over 50 who quit smoking by vaping, and I don't get out much except for Dr. appointments.
I haven't been in a store in years except for the age restricted, photo ID required Smoke shop a few years ago to purchase vaping products. Even with the age restrictions that are ALWAYS enforced there, their eliquids are stired in a locked case at the counter in the back of the store. That is what the vaping industry should still be doing with their products.
I'm appalled by the photo of the storefront display shown in this article! I recognize those brands and I will boycott them and other vapers will too! We used to police ourselves so well... but a few rotten apples have gotten in the barrel.. including but not limited to Big Tobacco. That store window shows things that every child would want, and it's wrong!
Some companies have been getting the cold shoulder from vapers for their packaging. Kids shouldn't even SEE these things in stores! The vaping community needs to wake up and put an end to ejuice manufacturers and stores that are being irresponsible and endangering our youth.
The FDA decided it couldn't ban flavored e-cigarettes because it would require, "going through a long, complicated process that would have inevitably ended up in court"? Um, but isn't that what the FDA does? That's the FDA's job definition. It's like if the police had caught the Boston Stranger and then released him to avoid a long and expensive trial, telling him instead to just knock off all the strangling.
Wow, I guess Juul flexed its political muscle. BTW this idea of having the fruit flavored vapes still in the store in an area not accessible to minors is very reminiscent of the tobacco industry. Shame on the FDA and the Trump administration for failing to insist the discontinuation of these child-oriented products!
22
@MB I'm 57 years old and I use Flavored e-liquid along with many other adults. I switched from cigarettes after having a heart attack 5 years ago. I don't use these Juul things, but I do like my flavored e-liquid. The store I buy my stuff at does not allow minors in the door and has many customers. So these are not "Child-Oriented products". Kids have always tried to get their hands on alcohol and tobacco products. To say that they are "Child-Oriented" is moronic. No one wants children using this stuff. That is why there are laws against it. Taking away flavors from e-liquids and cigarettes is ridiculous. When I started smoking as a teen I smoked Marlboros so how would making all cigarettes non-menthol cure teen smoking? When I started drinking I drank a non-flavored beer. If you think it's just the flavor that makes teens smoke and drink then you don't understand teens at all. They do it because adults tell them not to. Really, the only ones getting punished by this move is the law abiding adults, like me, who like to enjoy some some flavor.
2
“A lot of young, black kids don’t know that cigarillos are just as dangerous, so hopefully this will send that message. This is a huge step in protecting their health — it’s about time our young people are prioritized.”
Whether you're young and black or young and white, the primary draw for a lot of the cigarillos is that they are often used to roll a marijuana blunt. The wrapper adds flavor. And guess what, weed should absolutely be legal in a recreational sense. I don't even smoke and find the odor offensive. But I also recognize someone else's freedom doesn't stop just because I like or dislike something.
The FDA is overstepping bounds. First menthols. Soon they will push for restricting even further, even outright banning flavored e-liquids. E-liquids are wayyyyy safer than combustible tobacco. Inhaling anything is never a good idea, but considering the vast majority of vapers are former smokers, it's no surprise to see RJ Reynolds taking such a hyprocritical stance on this:
"Murray Garnick, the general counsel for Altria Group, which sells vaping products like MarkTen Elite and Apex through its Nu Mark subsidiary, said in an email that the tobacco giant welcomed the F.D.A.’s new e-cigarette policies."
Go figure.
This may be only one person observing a phenomenon; an anecdote. I have been in AA and sober since 1981. For that period of time I have noticed a higher incidence of AA members smoking mentholated cigarettes than the general population. It further occurred to me that menthol is a chemical that is an alcohol. I'm just saying!
This is insane. Years ago the best argument for restricting cigarettes was that they were nothing but nicotine delivery devices, and Joe Camel was outed as a child-friendly mascot that had to go. Now we have something that is by its very design a nicotine delivery device, and it comes in candy flavors and is marketed with colorful cartoonish boxes that could just as easily be advertising gummy bears, and this is all the FDA will do? To say, "try to keep them where kids can't get them." I guess the more things change, the more they stay the same (or get worse -- infinitely worse).
1
Comments stating that FDA regulations of e-cigs are an infringement on our freedoms is specious exactly because nicotine's job is to restrict your freedom. It's what addiction is.
The ability of the cerebral cortex to decide & then follow through with actions (executive function) is overridden by the chemical effect of nicotine on the body. The craving makes it nearly impossible to fulfill the desire to quit. Many thousands of people a year die trying.
The reason the FDA has a legitimate concern with kids is because this cerebrum cortex is not fully developed (until early 20s). They are in no position to make adult decisions (long-term consequences) which is why they get in so many car accidents and do dumb stuff like smoking bubblegum e-cigs that addict them without having a clear understanding of what the heck they're doing.
You can (naively) say that it's the parents responsibility to control or prevent these behavior in kids, but sadly the reality is that corporate advertisers targeting them, social/celebrity media and peer influences on kids today makes this a Herculean task.
Finally, I hate to say it, but these kids are aware of climate change and its devastating impact on the world that is coming towards them & may be a bit suicidal in the sense of having a very curtailed sense of the future.
Given the behaviors of Trump and so-called adult leaders are there enough good reasons for kids not to tune the concerns of 'adults' out and listen mostly to each other?
1
"The agency said it would allow stores to continue selling such flavored products, but only from closed off-areas that would be inaccessible to teenagers." Whoopdedo! What an ineffectual, dead end, nothing-short-of-idiotic strategy. For how many lifetimes have teenagers been finding their way around the nonsensical machinations of adults? Think booze, think opioids, think pornography, think tobacco. Can someone let me know what, beyond an honest education for some of them, is "inaccessible to teenagers"?
Who cares? If people want to smoke let them. The adverse health effects are well known at this point. Trying to crack down on vaping just blows my mind though, what a dumb move. Teen smoking rates are at an all time low, sure it's been replaced with vaping, but it's obviously much better tobacco. Why risk pushing young people back to traditional cigarettes? Instead of banning them put money into health research. I don't get it.
8
@JackKerouac If I don't have to pay for your healthcare costs and your secondhand smoke didn't reach me, sure you can smoke all you want. But as it stands, smoking is a leading cause of heart disease, cancer, and stroke, among the top 5 killers and disablers in this country. And the public has to pay for those costs, whether it's higher private insurance premiums or via Medicare/ Medicaid.
As for young people, studies show it's not the kids who would otherwise be smoking traditional cigs who are picking it up but kids who otherwise WOULD NOT be smoking tobacco at all. They're under the impression is it safe, period, not "safer." E-cigs might be ostensibly (no long-term studies) better than tobacco but it's not safer than not smoking at all. My talks with friends/ co-workers who are teens and in their 20s bear this out.
3
The adverse health effects are only known to those suffering them and their healthcare providers. Until one finds that one’s body will not function properly and it hurts so badly that one is lucky if pain medication just dulls it, one has no clue about the risks. Anyone who smokes most certainly has no clue about the risks.
1
@JackKerouac
Because regular cigarettes can be heavily taxed and e-cigs aren’t as of yet. It’s always about money.
Thanks for remaining the swamp, FDA.
As a high school teacher, I can assure you that this won't keep juuls out of the hands of teens, and we can't monitor them in bathroom stalls, so they will keep getting addicted to nicotine to enrich the juul makers. Almost no one at my school was smoking two years, but now juuling has exploded.
Really good policy-making! I'm sure many lobbyists are pleased.
31
Scientific evidence suggests menthol cigarettes are more highly addictive compared to standard tobacco.
About 20 years ago, I smoked Virginia Slims Menthol Lights and when my local stores ran out, there was NO other cigarette, including other VS mentol cigs, that can ease my cravings. I remember once having to drive over 20 minutes to go find my legal ‘fix’.
Quitting was extremely difficulty and I remember very clearly the agony and difficulty of withdrawal. I firmly believe/believed that there was something other than just nicotine in my cigarettes that made me crave this brand like not other.
As a start, I do hope menthol cigarettes are banned.
Research by Nadine Kabbani found that menthol may directly promote nicotine craving because it binds to a specific nicotine receptor in the nerve cells and effectively can alter the receptor's response to nicotine.
An FDA report backs up these findings and found that menthol cigs are much more addictive compared to standard cigarettes, stating:
"While there is little evidence to suggest that menthol cigarettes are more or less toxic or contribute more to disease risk to the user than non-menthol cigarettes, adequate data suggest that menthol use is likely associated with increased smoking initiation by youth and young adults.
The data indicate that menthol in cigarettes is likely associated with greater addiction. Menthol smokers show greater signs of nicotine dependence and are less likely to successfully quit smoking.”
2
My ancestors came to this country in 1608 and stayed in Jamestown. The Native Americans long ago had discovered and were smoking tobacco. This country financed it's beginning thanks to hogsheads of tobacco shipped to England. If you look around the Senate office building, you will see paintings on the walls of huge tobacco plants.
While in the US Navy we had sea stores cigarettes at a cost of $1 per carton. The cigarettes were packages in cases that could be floated ashore and they never got wet. When we came into the hope port of Norfolk, the tobacco company reps were the first ones to get on board. Typically they were retired Navy Chief Petty Officers and they wanted to make certain we had ample supplies of their brands.
Several years ago while returning home from a ASHP meeting in Orlando, I saw a woman puffing away on a electronic cigarette. I walked around until I saw an airport security guy and asked him why was she allowed to smoke that thing in the terminal - he replied that it was legal.
I have some good friends now that all smoke - get this the cost per package is over $5! They have tried everything including Chinese acupuncture and nothing works. When I first started flying out of La Guardia many years ago - smoking was permitted as soon as the fasten seat belt sign was turned off.
We will continue to see all matter of tobacco products used because of the tremendous resources of king tobacco!
2
I vape a fruity vape, and it was the only way i could quit smoking. Honest, it was a lifelong struggle to quit cigarettes (57 now, vaping for 5 years now) However, because my online vape store offers 0 mg vape, I have titered my nicotine intake to > 1 mg/ ml (6 mg/ml is considered a light vape, 36 mg/ml a heavy vape <- think Marlboro man).
My point is Juul could solve its problems by offering a 0 mg vape that would not be capable of hooking teenagers onto nicotine, one of the world's MOST addictive substances, but they don't - thus proving they are out to create lifelong addicts.
Regulation of purchases - great, expensive idea. How about a simple, less expensive idea - more education about the addictive properties of nicotine in schools, and a 0 mg Juul for those teenagers who will do dumb things like teenagers do.
6
@moti sen I've heard that about them and am encouraging friends to try it to quit. This whole ban this or ban that it's bad thing is getting out of hand. If it's so bad, then just go ahead and make it illegal... but we know that doesn't work. We don't need more nanny state.
3
I'm not a teenager and I'm not black. I started smoking menthol cigarettes in college one day because I had a cold and the regular ones were irritating. This is not to say that smoking is in any way a good thing, but the logic for banning menthol escapes me. Fruit flavors and vaping I can't speak for, but some of the arguments sound ridiculous to me as well, more political than a rationale to form the basis for any law. It's hard to trust the FDA now when there are so many political and corporate interests pushing their influence on the decisions and rulings being made.
10
As a former smoker who was able to quit in a matter of weeks through an electronic nicotine delivery device in large part because of flavors, I see this as a step in the right direction regarding the change in regulation. Nobody wants kids smoking or vaping, and preventing that is an important goal.
That said, it seems that there is a lot of evidence being ignored by public health advocates in the U.S. who could be doing a great deal more good by actively encouraging vaping for existing smokers, which reduces the harmful impact of nicotine consumption tremendously. Harm reduction is a far more attainable goal in the short term, and one that would make huge strides in improving public health, but is consistently ignored by a seemingly perversive all-or-nothing attitude. All this does is delay progress, and with that delay, exacerbate the the harm caused by combustible tobacco.
By all means, do more to restrict access to nicotine for minors, but please recognize that nicotine isn't the threat here, it's only about as harmful as caffeine, and like caffeine, has some benefits on cognitive and motor function. The thousands of harmful chemicals in cigarettes, and anywhere from a few to a few dozen chemicals found in e-cigarette vapor (this depends heavily on the device and liquids used) are the real concern. Regulation should be focused on getting people off of cigarettes, and making vaping safer, not sowing unreasonable fear and implementing draconian restrictions on adults.
40
@George I quit smoking and took up vaping 5 years ago after my first heart attack. I tried to quit many times before but just couldn't, My doctor said he would much rather have me vaping than smoking. My lungs have cleared up, I no longer have emphysema or asthma and I can breathe much better.
Now I got people telling me vaping is just as bad as smoking. Well it's not. I use a mod and tank with 6mg nicotine e-liquid. The cigarettes I used to smoke have 24mg of nicotine and more than 700 other chemicals, all of them bad for you and burning paper. Vaping is water vapor, like fog.
You can stand in a room full of fog forever with no negative health effects. Try standing in a room full of smoke from burning newspaper and it will kill you in just a few minutes. That is the difference between smoke and vapor.
Nicotine is bad for you yes, however you can control the amount of it in e-liquid just by purchasing one with a different level all the way down to 0. Yes 0 nicotine. So you have a choice here and taking away flavor is not going to prevent anything when it is the nicotine that is bad for your health.
If they ban flavored e-liquid people will just buy flavor and add it to the e-liquid and you will promote people mixing their own e-liquid. This is much more dangerous because then they will be inevitably adding more nicotine because this ban will teach teens to start experimenting with mixing to get what they want.
1
@George
Well said. There's something obsessive about the attitude of public health officials, to the point at which they've become willing to sacrifice lives to achieve some unattainable ideal of purity.
There is an interesting dip for high school age in both tobacco products and e-cigarettes at 2016, and then a sharp rise in 2017. The article doesn't cover any cause for this - it would be interesting to know why the dip occurred. Perhaps that would indicate actions that could be taken to reduce usage again.
Of additional concern (and often over-looked) are the health issues of these devices due to being manufactured in China.
1
I vape and I asked the man who sells me vape products if he sells vape products to teenagers. He told me the law in NYS is that no one under the age of 21 should be sold these products. He says he doesn't sell them to teenagers because he could lose his license. Aren't there laws in other states stating these products should not be sold to minors? One would think there would be.
1
"The agency said it would allow stores to continue selling such flavored products, but only from closed off-areas that would be inaccessible to teenagers." Yeah, sure, this would be as effective at keeping them out of the hands of kids as gun control laws keep guns out of the hands of potential killers or liquor laws preventing under 18-year-olds from drinking.
1
Can anyone explain why we have to pay these people’s medical bills?
So what is next? Do we ban flavored candy because it causes tooth decay? We sure don't want our kids getting hooked on chocolate and getting cavities now do we? No, we should only have unflavored candy because that will solve the problem right?
9
We shouldn’t be surprised that the industry targets Afro-Americans - it’s called market segmentation. It targets our kids, too. What a bummer.
1
Kids get cigarettes, even though there is supposedly age restrictions. Juul and other companies must be drooling over this silly move by the F.D.A. Go, big business. Who cares about hundreds of thousands of lives. At least they are not on drugs. Wait, nicotine is a drug, and smoking kills more people than "drugs".........
2
@Council: Aren’t alcohol and tobacco taxed already? If the tax money isn’t being used appropriately, the solution isn’t more taxation.
@Council
Smoking does. Vaping does not.
Tax tobacco products, and alcohol, to cover their community wide medical and societal costs. That will make the products less affordable, there will be less illness and associated costs, and the users will self insure.
1
The FDA has let down America. Concerns for the health of teenagers or African Americans is obviously secondary to making a profit. I would love the Democrats to investigate whether the FDA has been corrupted by special interests.
4
Yet another completely idiotic policy decision by the Trump administration. Rather than banning vape sales to kids, they’re banning menthol cigarettes for sale to anyone? Why? Vapes were the big problem here, NOT menthol. Last I checked there weren’t hordes of high school and middle school kids walking around exuding puffs of menthol; no, they’re all walking around exuding bubble gum, cotton candy, and watermelon.
What needs to happen is a blanket ban on any vaping equipment, vaping ‘cartridges’, traditional cigarettes, menthol cigarettes, or any other product containing nicotine to anyone under the age of 21. Smoking is an expensive drain on our collective wallets and it’s time we made it more difficult for kids to get hooked.
3
@Mr. Adams 21? So we can send kids to fight our wars, but if they dare desire a beer, a joint or a vape, nope. That's your argument?
“Almost all adult smokers started smoking when they were kids,” Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the agency’s commissioner, said in a statement.
Now, read the other article in the paper which offers Basic Facts about tobacco vs e-cigarettes.
In there you will find the following: "Nicotine is not known to cause cancer. ....The major cause for alarm is that nicotine is highly addictive. It is the chemical in tobacco and e-cigarettes that binds the user."
So .... nicotine is highly addictive - almost ALL adult smokers started smoking when very young (under 18?) - nicotine is highly addictive - ecigarettes contain nicotine ...
If the FDA is really after NO Tobacco addiction ... good luck!
1
Congress should put a $1 per pack tax on all tobacco and vaping products. Everyone hates to see their friends and relatives die the horrible slow deaths that many smokers succumb to.
I made a comment earlier about how some groups that appear to be 'consumer advocate" groups for people who vape are in fact funded by business interests. I have no time to scroll and find my comment back but an article on the The Verge titled "Smoke Screen" in Nov. 2017 discusses how Big Vape is copying Big Tobacco's methods of suppressing the truth for years:
"Yet former board members [of Consumer Advocates for Smoke-Free Alternatives Association] have received research grants from Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds, British American Tobacco, US Smokeless Tobacco Company, and Swedish Match, which also makes smokeless tobacco."
"In the past, cigarette companies had to create phony grassroots smokers’ rights groups to take their case to the public, says UCSF’s Stanton Glantz. “Now there are grassroots groups that popped up on their own that tobacco companies hide behind.”
(I've seen the same use of patients in my field among pharma companies.)
I'm not surprise by the vehemency of some comments: not only are vapers trying to protect their way of life, they're also fighting for (rather than against) one of the most addictive substances we know of, nicotine. It just goes to show how hard it is to kick the nicotine habit.
1
I suspect this change all goes back to who has investments in the companies. Follow the money. How many politicians are invested and who are they.
The argument that the science backs up these decisions is specious in an administration that denies the science behind global warming. But then, I expect the who's who of investors in coal and oil would clearly explain why global warming science is so wrong when the science behind the dangers of smoking and vaping is so right.
2
This article and its comments are all about the adults, and not about the kids. Until the kids make their decision to stop using carcinogens as highs, the adults will argue one way and the other, but without making any real progress in a good direction for the kids. For the adults, the conversation is about profit and loss. For the teens, the conversation is about life today and death in the distant future. This conversation needs to be among teens, just like the conversations about mass shootings in schools, student loan debt, and other teen issues. When teens unite and take a position, they have a political impact. When they do not, they have no effect. The NRA has its position on guns and school shootings. The FDA has its position on drugs that affect teens. The adult NGOs have their positions. But they are all based on the premise that adults control kids, specifically that adults control the behavior of teens and can manipulate it by screening off forbidden pleasures. But teens are their own people, and until they step up and join this conversation, it will bear no good fruit but only more repression and bureaucratic regulations.
2
What a cop out by the FDA. As if kids won't still be able to get them. As long as it's not illegal to sell them to kids, kids will still be buying them.
5
@Seagazer101 why would they ban the product instead of restricting the age if it wasn't already age-restricted? clearly you didn't know that you have to be 18 to purchase vape products, which is mildly concerning, but this article is filled with context clues that don't require a high SAT reading score to find.
2
It is already illegal to sell all tobacco and vape products to anyone under the age of 18
2
@Ryan
Of course I knew that. Why else were they trying to BAN them? Certainly not to protect adults from them.
I'm a high schooler who see this all the time at my school. I've got many people in trouble for this. Not because I'm a rat but because I see it as a public health concern. I'm tried to get fellow students to back me and end the vaping but I've basically failed because of the numbers of students vaping. So I have talked to school admin and had them update our cameras in order to help cut down on the number of students vaping. Which just cause a even worst problem since students are going to the bathroom to vape. When they go to the bathroom to vape they end up causing a locked bathroom because when someone is reported to have vaped in the bathroom the admin has locked the bathroom. That way no one else can go in there and vape. Which is causing students to walk to different buildings for a bathroom trip. So what should be 3 minutes in total is now 10. Basically what I'm trying to say is vaping is causing problems in school. Problems that are too big for anyone to control. They should pass a bill nationwide that makes it so you have to be 21 to buy e-cigs. I also am for the hiding under the counter. I think this can help crackdown on the nationwide problem that we have with e-cigs.
@Marcus
sorry Marcus. You might be trying to be a public health advocate, but this is not the way to go.
Maybe you could have some sort of assembly speaker recruited? Or publish an article in your school's newspaper? Or have the Health teacher have a say? Or have one of your school's clubs do some public service?
Learn to work with others who support your cause. I wish you much success in the future.
1
Let's hear the argument in favor of a product that gets people addicted to nicotine.
4
Ban menthols? I'll just quit. THAT will show them.
1
FDA needs to mind their own business and stop trying to control people's lives. I feel like they are the problem we need to ban. We don't have access to alot of stuff that are better for you because of the FDA. Don't let them poision your mind all they want is to control people. It's your body your choice. Cigarettes doesn't get you high and that isn't their decision to make for you unless they are giving out checks for doing so. The vaper device is the parents fault where are they when this children are buying it. Don't blame everything on the government parents need to be responsible.
4
@Ana I agree. The FDA should never have been put in charge of regulating tobacco products. Vaping is not a tobacco product either because it does not contain tobacco. The only reason the FDA was put in charge of tobacco products was to eventually ban all tobacco products, which as we can now see it's starting to do. This is just the first step towards that goal. Next I believe they will probably start to impose an increasing nicotine level reduction on all cigarettes. This will continue until no manufacturer will be able to meet these levels and eventually that will be the end of tobacco products all together. It will be touted as a way to make these products safer to the consumer, but it will be intended to bury them into oblivion. Otherwise they will just ban them outright. Either way this will all be done because you are stupid and the government knows what is best for you.
Don't you feel better knowing you have such a great government that takes care of you and makes all of your decisions for you? You don't even need to think for yourself anymore!
great, now we get to smell second hand smoke that doesn't smell minty, just smoky.
2
Look at the photo of vape paraphernalia. How is that not marketed to kids. I don't know how these people can stand up and defend this industry.
1
Great, so we ban e-cigarettes but not AR-15’s...
12
This junk should be made illegal for anyone under 25 and should otherwise be available by prescription only from doctors who are helping to wean people off cigarettes. There is no other justification for this pernicious product.
1
This is a start. I am against inhaling anything into the lungs other than air. Thank you.
@Southern Boy
start wearing a mask. Don't count and clean and pure air!
1
I am glad to see bans and restrictions going on flavored e-cigarettes . I would to see flavored beer be banned. That is getting more young people hooked and the latest Mayo health on any amount of alcohol consumed is deadly. It causes cancer in many areas of the body. Very sad that alcohol which makes many people mean and unstable is allowed to be sold and have very little warning labels on it.
3
One more interesting insight into the confusion over addictive behaviors and how the most common and destructive addictions are to money, power, approval, and status (all triggered by the same dopamine that fuels nicotine, alcohol, and opiate addictions).
There will never be a shortage of lawyers, lobbyists, politicians, business types, and other addicts willing to destroy the lives of countless millions because the symptoms for all addictions are the same and include denial, self-deception, and an indifference to the damage caused by the addictions.
5
There is some disinformation from some people commenting here. The AMA has said that quitting smoking is much more difficult than quitting heroin addiction. It is not easy by any stretch of the imagination. I speak from personal experience. I smoked for 50 years and vaping helped me kick the cigarette habit. And marijuana use and cigarette use are not the same. There are 20 cigarettes in a pack. I challenge anyone to smoke 20 joints a day and still be able to function on a daily basis. I have yet to hear of one case where a marijuana user has developed lung cancer.
5
NY Times: per the medical articles I have been reading a couple of things which I hope you will write about further:
1) 15% of e-cigarette users do not smoke traditional cigarettes - Annals of Internal Medicine - this month: this challenges the narrative that e-cigs are only or primarily used by people to quit; instead a new group of smokers are being groomed
2) nicotine in e-cigs continue to be as addictive as ever and lead to use of traditional cigs among kids and young people
3) the majority of smokers who use e-cigs don't necessarily quit traditional cigs; instead they continue to use both
4) the most surprising fact to me: e-cigs have NOT been shown to help people quit whereas other methods (patches, pills, etc. have
5) Finally, readers should be aware that when reading literature about e-cigs, check out the funding source. Nowadays, like pharma companies, cigarette companies sponsor so-called "consumer advocacy" groups which are actually covers for their lobbying activities. They know that the average person will not dig far enough to find out who the sponsors are. In fact, they are often established in a way where you can't easily find their funding source.
1
@ms
Link your sources or it’s all hot air.
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@ms Banning will do nothing but for the consumers to want to buy the product more. They is always a way to get it and then another Country will be getting our money. Doesn't make sense. Banning anything has never done anything but make other countries richer. Then we will be stuck paying the cost. It's so stupid that I don't know where this people don't understand hasn't worked in the past. Let's try a different approach. How about increasing taxes so it is harder to obtain. Sounds more reasonable.
@Ana All sorts of things are banned all the time, from medications to chemicals that have been shown to be unsafe/ harmful. It doesn't mean people will "want to buy the product more." We've had a ban on letting kids buy cigarettes for a long time and the smoking rate did not rise from it.
I agree that increasing taxes on products is one way to decrease people consuming it but usually to get any progress on a health or societal issue, no one action gets it done but a combination. Examples include not just the anti-tobacco efforts over the last few decades but also the history of the civil rights movement or the fight for effective HIV drugs in the 1980s-1990s.
There must be some really bad health information for a government agency in the Trump era to put the clamps on vaping. Maybe too many grandchildren of US Congressmen and women have been caught vaping. Still, I feel the government is keeping something from the public to come down so hard and fast on a profitable, yet dubious, vaping industry.
7
Menthol cigarettes - just make them all illegal or leave menthol alone. How easy is it to buy a menthol concentrate to put on your cigarette? Look on Amazon (it's very easy). This is just silly.
2
Smoking is dumb. Just plain dumb. Period.
5
Menthol cigarettes and flavored tobacco don't harm African-Americans. African-Americans harm African-Americans when they consume tobacco, just like Caucasians, Asians and green people harm themselves when they take up an addictive drug that causes cancer and other health problems.
@August West and guns don't kill people. People kill people.
This is great news as I have been advocating for Essence, Ebony, and Jet magazine publishers to stop promoting menthol cigarettes on their pages but to no avail.
1
I'm reminded of an old David Letterman joke.
Cigarette maker Philip Morris and Kraft foods have merged and they've announced their first joint product: Menthol Jell-O!
1
Electronic Cigarettes were created due to the Federal, State & Local Governments imposing high taxes and regulations on the tobacco industry. Just the mention of a ban on flavors has already got business intreprenuers coming up with ideas on how to profit from these proposed bans. The FDA is just chasing it's tail. How about making it illegal to try to purchase a nicotine product if you are underage? Put the fines and penalties on the person intent on ruining their health, not on the businesses. There are no penalties or fines for the young people breaking the rules. This gives them no fear to try. The FDA sends an undercover minor in to try to buy something to test the stores. There is nothing in place to make sure the ones that are actually trying to buy get punished.
1
The purpose of these new restrictions is ostensibly to prevent minors from accessing flavored pods, which is largely how young teens are currently introduced to nicotine addiction. If new young people aren't hooked, the market dries up. Smoking among teens is down; vaping among teens is sky high. I imagine that limiting availability by checking ID's will be about as effective as it ever was for cigarettes. As long as flavored pods exist, young teens will access them. Older teens will purchase them and sell them (for profit) to younger teens, and there will always be stores who are lax in enforcing the law. And just as cigarette use among teens was declining, a new generation of nicotine addicts is being cultivated.
5
@TG It is not the flavor that is addictive. It is the nicotine. Juul doesn't offer a 0 mg/ml nicotine option for its fruit-flavored vapes because ... it wouldn't be addictive - therefore no lifelong customers created.
If 0 mg were for sale, and if schools/or other public service offered more education about the addictive properties of nicotine ... then I suspect teens who want to do something dumb but not too dumb would try the 0 mg vape, and easily give it up once they have had their fun.
Instead ... Juul hooks them. Big tobacco is still evil to the core - that attribute of theirs never seems to go away.
Yes that was my point - they've used the flavors to hook the kids, much as images of Joe Camel and other images of how cool smoking is we're used to lure kids back in the day. If vaping tasted like cigarettes kids wouldn't do it. Instead, we have 13 year old nicotine addicts.
1
“Stopping short of its threatened ban” - those first 6 words in this article might as well be the FDA’s mission statement: it’s all bark and no bite.
The FDA is gutless, toothless, and is kept on a short leash - and a shock collar - by Big Pharma and Big Tobacco. I wrote all about it in my book, “In Jake’s Company.”
This news about okaying carcinogens for kids follows the late-October news that the FDA is nearing approval of DSUVIA (it’s a form of sufentanil - do the 3 syllables following “su-“ ring a bell?): it’s a highly addictive opioid that’s stronger and more deadly than morphine, fentanyl, and OxyContin (oxycodone).
Earth to FDA: We are in the midst of an opioid crisis. The National Institute on Drug Abuse (do you talk to those people?) reports that every day, more than 115 people in the US die from overdosing on already-available opioids. Do the math, FDA Commissioner Gottlieb: that’s more than 41,975 deaths from opioid overdoses each year. Expect that number to rise significantly, Dr. Gottlieb, after your agency approves DSUVIA.
Congratulations to Big Tobacco and Big Pharma: You’ve done it again with these two most recent victories, and - as always - no one will ever hold you accountable for the cancers and overdose deaths your products cause, in children and adults. It’s the perfect crime, year in and year out.
P. S. to the FDA: There’s a crisis surrounding our astronomical healthcare costs, too, including the care of cancer patients and opioid addicts....
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I have no problem with banning flavored nicotine inhalers. I don’t even have a problem with banning flavored carbonated drinks–sodas. What I have a problem with is the conflation between inhaling hydrocarbons–smoke–and nicotine. All the studies I am familiar with show nicotine restricts blood corpuscles. It obviously has an effect upon the heart and the circulatory system in general. What is the evidence that it causes cancer? I’m sure there is evidence somewhere but I haven’t seen it. Are the dilatory effects of nicotine worst than the dilatory effects of the medicines advertized on television that lead to liver damage, breathing problems and even death? I just can’t take the FDA seriously. I can’t even take the people who oppose ANY mind-mood altering substance seriously because their arguments are more emotional than rational. Sorry.
1
@Lynard I'm a smoker. There's plenty of evidence that it causes cancer.
IARC. Monographs on the Evaluation of Carcinogenic Risks to Humans VOLUME 83 Tobacco Smoke and Involuntary Smoking. 2004;83.
Swerdlow AJ, Peto R, Doll R. Epidemiology of cancer. In: Oxford Textbook of Medicine. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press; 2010:299-332.
Peto R, Lopez AD, Boreham J, Thun MJ. Mortality from smoking in developed countries 1950 - 2005 (or later).
Brown, K. et al. The fraction of cancer attributable to modifiable risk factors in England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and the United Kingdom in 2015. British Journal of Cancer 2018 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41416-018-0029-6
WHO. Tobacco. 2013. http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs339/en/. Accessed January 9, 2014.
Doll R, Peto R, Wheatley K, Gray R, Sutherland I. Mortality in relation to smoking: 40 years’ observations on male British doctors. BMJ. 1994;309(6959):901-911. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=2541142&tool=p....
Doll R, Peto R, Boreham J, Sutherland I. Mortality in relation to smoking: 50 years’ observations on male British doctors. BMJ. 2004;328(7455):1519. doi:10.1136/bmj.38142.554479.AE.
Banks E, Joshy G, Weber MF, et al. Tobacco smoking and all-cause mortality in a large Australian cohort study: findings from a mature epidemic with current low smoking prevalence. BMC Med. 2015;13:38. doi:10.1186/s12916-015-0281-z.
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@Patty O
Of course smoking causes cancer. Any hydrocarbon inhaled into the lungs will cause an adverse reaction and lead to the body reacting defensively. But if you read my comment, I specifically asked whether there is any evidence that nicotine causes cancer. Nicotine is found throughout natural substances consumed by just about everyone. Does nicotine cause cancer? What are the adverse effects of limited nicotine consumption? The number of substances consumed in excess is almost limitless which can lead to death, including nicotine. But does nicotine consumption cause cancer? I don't know how the question can be any clearer.
@Lynard No it doesn’t. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, released when tobacco is burned, do.
The issue here is that the flavorings, when burned, release chemicals like formaldehyde, which also are cargenogenic.
1
I selfishly will miss my menthol cigarettes and dont really understand the push to ban them and continue to allow non-menthol cigarettes.
8
Government actions aren't meant to be logical. FDA had to avoid negative publicity. Juul's obvious disregard of public health required a ban of flavored e-cigarettes but Republicans aren't going to issue a logical regulatory response to a public health threat when there's serious money at stake! What are a few hundred thousand (black, teen) lives compared to hundreds of billions of dollars in profit! From where I sit, tobacco has never served any useful purpose, and it could and should have been banned decades ago. The government never hesitated banning Cannabis thereby disproportionately affecting African Americans. The government then set a precedent by spending billions of dollars on a 70 year Cannabis ban, a product that is demonstrably far less destructive than tobacco. That ban continues to this day but FDA couldn't possibly ban flavored e-cigarettes, a product directly targeted at teens. Let's addict yet another generation to tobacco. Me, personally: I oppose government interference with personal choice but I'm logical enough to recognize that if the social contract between a government and the people it serves is to mean anything, that government has an obligation to prevent corporate exploitation. This means that where/when possible, dangerous products should be banned and or their use seriously restricted.
@James it is not the government place to be banning cigarettes or vapers. That is just another move to control people. Noone is dumb when you smoke you know what can happen. It's written on the box and if the person decides to that is their problem not the FDA for being noisy. That's crazy. They are trying to control almost everything. Why don't they control themselves first ? Freedom doesn't seem free if the government is restricting everything.
Nicotine is a toxin. Use a lot of it and it will sicken. More and people will die. It’s habit forming. It can trigger cardiovascular problems by narrowing blood vessels. It impedes brains development in adolescents. It’s not harmless.
Nicotine withdrawal lasts a week to ten days. That’s it. All this talk about how vaping saves people from having to smoke is just people unwilling to struggle with cravings. Fine, but it’s a continuation of substance abuse, not s cure.
@Casual Observer Alcohol withdrawal takes the same amount of time, yet there are alcoholics who keep slipping for years and years. I've quit cigarettes for 10 days on at least 3 occasions, and everyday there was a strong craving for nicotine i couldn't ignore.
Some people can quit alcohol. Some people can't (Robin Williams). Same with cigarettes.
Vapes offer solution with no carbon monoxide or other by-products of combustion. Plus, online vape stores offer 0 mg/ml vape by which I have reduced my nicotine intake to less than 1 mg/ml.
I quit cigarettes 6 years ago, but I have been unable to quit nicotine. completely.
Vape ain't perfect, but it beats cigarettes. Juul needs to offer 0 mg/ml - - By not doing so, it is a bit obvious Juul is striving to create lifelong nicotine addict customers.
4
I have a hard time reconciling my belief that everyone should be able to do what they please, within reason, without government interference, with my belief that cigarettes are a public health hazard and should probably be banned outright.
1
@Tim Two drivers for why I -- as a nonsmoker - care is that a) 2nd and 3rd hand tobacco smoke has been shown to cause problems in people who don't smoke themselves and b) we all have to pay for the health problems smokers get in the long run whether through increased private insurance premiums or taxes for Medicare/ Medicaid. There are few extraneous things people can do to their bodies which cause more harm than smoking. If cigarette users are willing to pay entirely for their own healthcare, they can have at it.
With e-cigs, it's too early to tell what the long-term effects are yet on e-cig users and non-e-cig users. Also, just because we can't see or smell noxious fumes does not mean the vaporized chemicals are safe.
I find it very interesting that menthol cigarettes are smoked by 60 to 75% of black smokers and 90% of black youth smoke menthol cigarettes, according to Wikipedia. I'd guess that e cigarettes, flavored or not, are probably smoked more by white people. I don't know what these statistics mean exactly, in relation to this article, but I do know that my immediate thought when I read the headline was about race and what part it might have played in this decision.
2
Smoke hurts the lungs, menthol helps cover the hurt.
Frankly if these people don't care, why should I? All cigarettes are bad for you and I don't doubt that vaping will be proven just as bad after it's been studied more.
Better ban all flavored alcohol as well. See how that goes. Speaking as a former smoker (9 years smoke-free minus 5 cigarettes,) if they banned my cigarette of choice I would have climbed the highest mountain to get them when I smoked. This policy is 100% designed to create chaos in a community that's suffering to begin with. When will this country ever learn anything?
This may have flown in the former USSR, but this is America. I have always thought the FDA's hands weren't clean but now they are showing us how low they will go.
2
This is a great example of why we have a government. Obviously, people are too stupid to take care of their own health in certain areas - there are MANY more. We haven't done anything about guns, coal and auto emissions (rolled back), climate change, etc. Trump doesn't't even know about basic economics (but will NEVER admit it) let alone anything above 1st grade science.
It is amazing that THIS aspect of public health actually passed through our gatekeepers in this fetid Administration. Kudos to the REAL Civil Servants who are still allowed to do their jobs and do so.
1
Grass is slowly becoming legal. It may well be less destructive to society for it to become legal as are alcohol and tobacco. However, so far, there is nothing about its carcinogenic effects, if any.
Will grass become the cancer causing product for the next generation? Does the New York Times know of any research on this issue?
1
@mrcoinc 'grass' is much more of a carcinogen than tobacco, partly because cigarettes have filters. From my point of view, kids vaping flavors is much preferable to smoking 'weed' - which is what i think some will naturally turn to
That is simply not true. Where did you get your information from?
Leave menthol alone. No one likes menthol as it is.
3
Re: the ban on menthol cigarettes - I thought Republicans disliked the "Nanny State". Guess they changed their minds until the Democrats regain control.
1
Then, what would it take?
1
As has already been said, this is a racist ban. Almost a century ago marijuana was outlawed partly out of fear and hysteria over Mexican immigrants and other "brown people." Only now are the ridiculous prohibitions against marijuana being slowly rolled back, but only after the "War on Drugs" had destroyed many times more lives than the drugs themselves.
But now menthol is favored by blacks? Better criminalize it!
History repeats itself.
2
if the FDA and government agencies are so concerned with protecting the public from carcinogens, then why aren't all forms of tobacco and nicotine banned? All this says to me is the tobacco companies just threw a lot of lobby money to keep their products insulated from competition under a false pretext. As a former smoker, I wish tobacco had never been discovered.
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@chris l
Tobacco is carcinogenic, but nicotine is not.
To repeat a point, I'm not sure why some many in the public confuse e cigarettes with cigarettes. The former are estimate in studies to be 20 times safer -- which isn't entirely safe, but is hardly the scourge that cigarettes are.
Research is finding that the flavorings, when burned, produce carcenogenic residues.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/09/180910142412.htm
That’s why the FDA is doing this. You can still vape the nicotine.
1
It does seem that many substances made of hydrocarbons if not completely burned, to carbon dioxide and water, leave compounds that include carcinogens.
1
@Casual Observer Right. And a lot of it is in the air. But we should draw the line at the sale of things that when ingested cause cancer. Like vegetables with Roundup on them. And vape flavorings.
1
Kids will always have a big brother/sister or older friend. Kids are always going to have access to these products no matter what.
9
Except that a ban will make it 100% more attractive to the teenaged set.
I think we should ban flavored sodas as well. Adults who drink soda often started as a kid, getting hooked on flavored drinks that mask the dangers of 50g of sugar per serving.
On a serious note, vapes are a big problem and I suspect will turn out to be even more unhealthy than cigarettes in the long term, due to the variable nicotine levels and lack of regulatory oversight on the composition of vape juices being sold. At least tobacco is relatively natural, instead of synthesized in who knows where.
1
@Texas1836
Heavy emphasis on the word "relatively". The crap that goes into a cigarette is barely tobacco, loaded with chemicals to make it burn evenly and stay lit. While even pure tobacco is not safe, and I say that as a premium cigar smoker, adding these chemicals makes the whole think much more dangerous in the extreme.
@Texas1836
Tobacco is natural, at least until the cigarette manufacturers get hold of it. At that point they load it down with chemicals designed to keep you hooked.
@Texas1836 I agree. They also are more dangerous because people perceive them to be 'safer' and walk around smoking them with impunity. I don't want to smell that smoke any more than I want to smell cigarette smoke. People can keep their cancer to themselves; don't give it to me.
The FDA has no idea what it's doing...it created an opiod epidemic in our country with its lax oversight of the manufacturers and distributors of those drugs. It created a nation of addicts with tens of thousands of opiod deaths a year. It allowed e-cigarettes to be sold over the counter - then allowed flavored versions - now it's retracting. It's a bloated, inefficient government bureaucracy that is controlled by its incestuous relationship with Big Pharma. Follow the money, it leads to the Food and Drug Administration in Rockville, MD.
7
Why of course, the industry that continues to sell products that will addict and kill you if use as directed is going to police itself.
10
who got to whom on this reversal...
12
Acknowledging the danger of menthol and flavored cigars and admitting African Americans are prone to smoking both, it could look like the Trump administration is trying to save black lives. On the other hand, with the same administration's tendency towards racism I get to wonder if this is more an effort to take away a relatively unique privilege from blacks?
The lack of equivocation between segregating children's access to vaping flavored nicotine and banning the the use of menthol outright is -at least to me - glaring
12
I hadn't read any of the comments when I wrote mine. I basically said the same thing. I find it much more than just interesting that there's a very obvious racial aspect to this decision. Since liquor and cigarettes have been pushed hard at the black community for decades, I don't believe for a second that there's been a change of heart on the part of the tobacco industry towards their historic and blatant marketing choices regarding the black community. In short, I agree with your comment.
@Plumberb
Well, let's be real -- e cigarettes are estimated in scientific studies to be *95% safer* than tobacco cigarettes. They really aren't the same thing at all. And somehow, that obvious fact has been lost on some members of the public, who see the word "cigarette" and assume they're the same old cancer sticks.
FINALLY!
1
The F.D.A. is regulating! The horror, the horror. Don’t worry, Trump will stop it.
3
This is racist. Ban all cigarettes or ban none. The proposed ban on menthol cigarettes implies that adult black people do not have the sense to make their own choices, so the government has to do that for them. Banning flavors will not reduce cigarette sales. It will just increase sales for non-flavored types. This is not small government nor sound policy. The FDA needs to reconsider.
59
Who would choose to live with a body that is disintegrating and in continual pain? Well when one takes in cigarette smoke and other carcinogenic substances, one is making such a choice but not one person who does that believes it. The separation between the act and the consequences is so long that people just cannot see it. That’s why the collective memory of mankind steps in with those darn regulations.
1
@Casual Observer
Your comment totally misses my point. The FDA is specifically targeting a product that is, evidently, preferred by black people, while leaving others alone. That is overtly discriminatory. Like I said in my OP, ban ALL or ban NONE. Limiting the availability of one kind of cigarette will not prevent smoking, so that rationale just doesn't hold water. I have no problem with "darn" regulations as long as they are fair & make sense. This proposal isn't & doesn't. Btw, your comment might apply to kids, but they are already legally prohibited from buying nicotine products. Most adult smokers are fully aware of the risks they are taking. Have you considered the irony of this admin's FDA going after menthol tobacco while its EPA is hard at work undoing air quality regulations that impact us all?
2
@Robin You obviously don't understand the significant adverse impact of menthol cigarettes on the lives of blacks in this country. Menthol cigarettes are the most addictive type of cigarettes on the market, and blacks are more likely to smoke this type because the menthol is associated with health benefits, however, it makes it easier for a smoker to begin smoking. In other words, it's a form of entrapment.
This is why the industry has spent billions targeting blacks in black publications, namely Essence, Ebony, and Jet. Black Enterprise is the only publication that refused tobacco dollars.
3
I am going to preface this by saying I am a former smoker and though I quit 5 1/2 years ago, I do believe adults should be able to make these decisions about what to personally consume.
Having said that, I've always wondered about the employees of tobacco companies. Do they feel good about themselves? Do they feel good about what they do for a living, working for companies who focus on making products that slowly kill their customers and create an enormous economic strain on an already strained healthcare system and emotional strain for families? Really, aside from marketing, what's the difference between a tobacco company and a meth or heroin dealer?
42
They make your primary assertion, that adults are responsible for making their own choices. They disregard the reality that with respect to many things, people have not the ability to know all the consequences of what they do.
5
You could say the same thing about a Brewer or Winemaker but prohibition didn't work either.
4
@ChrisH
Congratulations for quitting! Having never smoked, I understand that for those who have both smoked and used cocaine, the cocaine was easier to give up.
What’s the difference between a tobacco company and a drug dealer? Though they’re both in the same line of work, one is legal. Given all the info and warnings that are out there, I wonder why anyone these days would start smoking. Maybe it’s because many teenagers think they’re invincible and can stop anytime.
In the vein of what you said, I wonder what people who work at gun manufacturers think. After all, like cigarettes, if that product is used as directed, it will also maim and kill.
Remember middle school, where we learned that our government exists to defend the best interests of the people it represents? I miss those days.
26
Why did the F.D.A. change its tune about candy-flavored e-ciggypoos? A glance under yon table might spy a stack of "clues."
16
In case you didn’t read, they’re very effective on helping adults quit cigarettes and the mere threat of banning them was enough to get companies to take action.
4
@Diego, that's an interesting and maybe fair point. But, also in the article, I read this...
"Dr. Gottlieb, who was appointed by President Trump, is in an unusual position for a Republican appointee. His confirmation in May 2017 drew dire warnings from some public health advocates, who protested in particular his investments in Kure, a chain of vaping lounges. These complaints grew louder in July 2017, when Dr. Gottlieb extended the deadline by five years for e-cigarette companies to meet new standards."
8
@Diego
"...very effective on helping adults quit cigarettes..."
Well, of course. Because vapes continue the use of the very highly addictive substance nicotine.
How about a vape to offer heroin in pure form? Would that prevent overdosing followed by death?
Nicotine's effects on the body are well-documented and constitute a serious health problem for millions every day.
2