The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently announced its new move to stop the use of e-cigarettes among children. The federal agency revealed that electronic cigarettes and nicotine addiction are now prevalent among kids.
The FDA will now impose strict restrictions on flavored e-cigarette stores. It also plans to ban flavored and menthol cigars. The bureau claimed that these three products are now commonly used by children.
According to the South China Morning Post, flavored e-cigarettes can only be on sale in stores where 18-year-old and above customers are allowed to buy. It will also be available in areas where there are strict age restrictions.
Commissioner Scott Gottlieb then called out the companies that will not follow these restrictions to remove all of their products in stores within 90 days. The FDA also wants a more improved age-verification process for online buying.
The FDA's move targets to decrease the numbers of kids buying e-cigarettes and flavored cigars from stores, service stations, and online. Although these restrictions are yet to get imposed on menthol, mint or tobacco-flavored products, Gottlieb said at least it could help children to stop smoking.e
"I will not allow a generation of children to become addicted to nicotine through e-cigarettes," Gottlieb said in a statement. "We won't let this pool of kids, a pool of future potential smokers, of future disease and death, continue to build."
Gottlieb promised that they would do everything to stop the vaping trend from continuing as e-cigarettes became wildly popular among the youth. The most famous brand is Juul because of its design that looks like thumb drives. It is easier to hide and carry and can get charged on laptop computers.
FOX6Now reported that health advocates see the menthol ban to help improve the health of many Americans. However, it may take a long while before it gets fully implemented. The restrictions on e-cigarettes may start in a few months.
The use of e-cigarettes is considered safer than the regular cigars. But, there are still versions of it that contain addictive nicotine. Health officials also said that this device could pave the way for kids to try a real cigarette.
There are numerous reports that said smoking is the country's leading cause of preventable illness. It has caused more than 480,000 deaths per year.
But analyses revealed that smoking continuously declines for over five decades. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention noted that from 42 percent of smoking adults in the U.S. in the 1960s, it dropped to 14 percent in 2017.
Experts believe that anti-smoking campaigns, cigarette taxes, and smoking bans help the decline in smoking. But some said that it is because adult smokers switched to use e-cigarettes.
