On Wednesday, President Trump said during an Oval Office conference that his administration would consider banning all non-tobacco flavored e-cigarettes across the nation.
The move is aimed at preventing kids and teens from picking up vaping, as public health officials reported an ongoing investigation of more than 450 cases of a serious respiratory condition and six deaths associated with vaping.
Trump said that he wants every parent to know that his administration is taking all the necessary steps to review non-tobacco flavored e-cigarettes, as they have been associated with a growing number of respiratory issues and deaths.
“We may very well have to do something very, very strong about it. We can’t allow people to get sick. People are dying,” said Trump.
Alex Azar, the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), has detailed on certain plans for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to set guidelines to ban all flavored e-cigarette, except plain tobacco.
Azar explained to that the administration has the right to do so. He also said that the Obama administration permitted the sale of flavored e-cigarettes without much certainty of their safety.
On Tuesday, first lady Melania Trump took to
The first lady tweeted, “I am deeply concerned about the growing epidemic of e-cigarette use in our children,” the first lady wrote. “We need to do all we can to protect the public from tobacco-related disease and death, and prevent e-cigarettes from becoming an on-ramp to nicotine addiction for a generation of youth. @HHSGov”
After the conference was over, Azar told reported that Melania was very much involved in the efforts to ban flavored e-cigarettes.
The FDA has been intending to implement a set of guidelines that will “prioritize enforcement pre-market requirements.” The agency said it would give more details on the policy shortly.
Several former officials of Trump administration have been working for Juul, one of the top sellers of e-cigarettes.
In a statement, Juul said, “We strongly agree with the need for aggressive category-wide action on flavored products. We will fully comply with the final FDA policy when effective.”
Dr. Robert Redfield, the director of the CDC, said that he “strongly supports the decision to clear non-tobacco-flavored e-cigarettes from the market.”
He added, “Any tobacco product use, including e-cigarettes, is unsafe for youth. Nicotine can harm the developing adolescent brain. We must do everything we can to reduce the use of e-cigarettes among middle and high school students.” On Friday, the CDC recommended people to stop using all vaping products containing nicotine or cannabis while public health officials have been working to investigate the cause of respiratory illnesses.
