FDA comes down on JUUL

The Commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration, Dr. Scott Gottlieb, said yesterday that the agency was introducing several enforcement actions as part of a new Youth Tobacco Prevention Plan to stop young people from using and gaining access to JUUL and other electronic cigarettes.
In a note issued through its Center for Tobacco Products, the FDA said it understood that many kids were using e-cigarettes with a particular set of characteristics: an appearance that closely resembled a USB flash drive, high levels of nicotine, and emissions that were hard to see. It said that these characteristics might facilitate youth use by making the products more attractive to children and teens.
Several of these products fell under the JUUL brand, but other brands with similar characteristics were emerging, it said.
As part of the Youth Tobacco Prevention Plan to stop youth use of tobacco products – particularly e-cigarettes – the FDA said it was announcing several new actions and efforts, including:

• Issuing warning letters to 40 retailers for violations related to youth sales of JUUL e-cigarettes;
• Conducting a large-scale, undercover nationwide blitz of retail establishments;
• Sending an official request for information to JUUL Labs requiring the company to submit important documents to better understand the reportedly high rates of youth use and the particular youth appeal of these products; and
• Taking steps to foreclose online sales of JUUL to minors.

Finally, the FDA said that as part of the FDA’s responsibility to protect kids and significantly reduce tobacco-related disease and death, these were the first steps in a new effort aimed at stopping youth use of e-cigarettes.