In late April, the Food and Drug Administration announced its intention to begin the process of banning menthol flavors in cigarettes and all flavors in cigars.
As public health researchers, we applaud the FDA’s actions as important steps and indications that, as a country, we are headed in the right direction when it comes to relying on science to address the devastating public health burden of combustible tobacco use.
Understandably, the FDA’s recent announcement left many wondering about other flavored tobacco products, mainly e-cigarettes, and whether they, too, should be banned. Connecticut legislators are now considering these questions with pieces of legislation that seek to ban all flavored e-cigarettes and limit the amount of nicotine allowed in these products. These steps are intended to prevent underage use of e-cigarettes, but evidence indicates that they will have the unintended consequence of preventing many smokers from quitting through vaping and thus harm public health.
Not all tobacco products cause the same damage and shouldn’t be treated as if they do. Noncombustible products — i.e., those that don’t deliver nicotine through smoke, like e-cigarettes — are widely recognized to be a substantially less harmful nicotine alternative to combustible cigarettes.
David B. Abrams and Raymond S. Niaura – CTPost – 2021-05-26.
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