The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday rejected a company’s application to sell menthol-flavored vaping products, citing a lack of public health benefit and potential risk to youth vapers.
The FDA said Logic Technology Development didn’t show its menthol products are more likely than non-flavored products to help people quit or reduce smoking.
Combined with the risk of enticing youth vapers who like menthol vapes, the agency rejected the company’s marketing of Logic Pro and Logic Power menthol e-liquid packages.
“In this case, the applicant did not provide sufficient scientific evidence to show that the potential benefit to adult smokers outweighs the risks to youth,” said Brian King, director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products.
In 2020, the FDA banned flavored cartridges used in nicotine-delivering vaping devices but still allowed menthol products. Underage users increasingly turned to menthol vapes or synthetic nicotine products that companies deployed in response to the FDA’s ban on tobacco-derived flavors. The synthetic nicotine products are often disposable and sold in flavors favored by underage vapers.
The 2022 National Youth Tobacco Survey released this month showed 14.1% of high school students and 3.3% of middle school students vaped at least once over the past 30 days. Among those underage users, nearly 85% used flavored e-cigarettes and nearly 27% used menthol-flavored e-cigarettes.
The FDA’s decision to reject one company’s application to sell menthol-flavored vapes is an important step to tighten a “significant loophole” to allow menthol products on the market, said Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.
But he urged the FDA to remove other manufacturers’ menthol-flavored and synthetic vapes from the market.
“If FDA follows this decision by finally clearing the market of flavored, disposable and synthetic nicotine e-cigarettes, it will make its most significant step in reducing youth e-cigarette use so far,” Myers said.
Also on Wednesday, the American Association for Cancer Research and the American Society of Clinical Oncology called for a ban on all flavored e-cigarettes and vaping products. The organizations’ statement, published in the medical journals Clinical Cancer Research and Journal of Clinical Oncology, highlighted the need for “urgent action to end predatory practices of the tobacco industry and protect public health.”
The organizations said long-term health risks will remain unknown until more studies are completed.
While vaping devices emit fewer carcinogens than cigarettes, the organizations said preliminary evidence links vaping devices to “DNA damage and inflammation, key steps in cancer development.”
The organizations said nicotine can increase addiction, raise blood pressure, interfere with brain development and suppress the immune system.
The organizations also said studies show a young person who vapes is 2.9 to 4 times more likely to smoke compared to non-vapers.
“The popularity of (vaping) among young people and adults who do not smoke continues to be a significant public health problem that threatens to derail decades of progress against tobacco use,” AACR President Lisa Coussens said in a statement.
Ken Alltucker – USA Today – 2022-10-26.
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