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High school e-cigarette use has jumped nearly 80%. Now, the FDA wants new regulations

(CNN)Vaping increased nearly 80% among high schoolers and 50% among middle schoolers since last year, prompting the US Food and Drug Administration to propose new measures against flavored nicotine products that have propelled the rise, the agency announcedThursday.

“These data shock my conscience,” FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb said in a statement, proposing to strengthen the agency’s policies against flavored e-cigarette products. These proposals could ultimately prompt their removal from shelves and websites that are accessible to minors.
The proposed changes do not include mint, menthol and tobacco flavors, however. Gottlieb said he wanted to leave the door open for adults who might use these products to quit smoking cigarettes. But that should not mean fueling an “epidemic” of new kids becoming addicted, he added.
“We will not allow that opportunity to come at the expense of addicting a whole new generation of kids to nicotine,” Gottlieb said.
Despite these exceptions for e-cigarette flavors, Gottlieb proposed additional bans on regular menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars.
He also proposed tightening the reins on products that are marketed or “appealing to youth.”
“This could include using popular children’s cartoon or animated characters, or names of products favored by kids like brands of candy or soda,” the announcement said.
Consumers and health experts have been locked in a contentious debate about vaping: While some see it as a smoking cessation tool for adults, others say there’s no good evidence to support this.
“We’re committed to utilizing the full range of our regulatory authorities to directly target the places kids are getting these products and address the role flavors and marketing are playing,” Gottlieb said.
“We will leave no stone unturned,” he said. “This is one of our highest priorities.”

‘Spike in use’

One in five high schoolers has vaped in the past month, according to the new numbers announced by the FDA and released in conjunction with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“As a father of three young children, I hear daily from parents and teachers worried about the epidemic use of electronic cigarettes and nicotine addiction among kids,” Gottlieb said.
Health experts worry these products could put kids’ developing brains at risk, get them hooked on nicotine early in life, and be a gateway to smoking and other drugs.
“The data show that kids using e-cigarettes are going to be more likely to try combustible cigarettes later,” Gottlieb said. “This is a large pool of future risk.”
The new statistics also show that students who vape are doing so more frequently than last year, and they are using flavored liquids more often, according to the FDA. More than a quarter of current users vaped at least 20 of the last 30 days, and over two-thirds had used flavored products.
“Flavors are a major reason they use these products in the first place,” Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said in a statement Thursday.
“Flavors increase the likelihood of kids progressing from experimentation to regular use, and a portion of them will go on to use combustible tobacco products, with the huge added dangers of tobacco-related disease.”
The new numbers come from a school-based survey, conducted from March to May, which revealed that the number of current users in middle and high school — meaning those who have vaped in the past 30 days — increased 48% and 78% from last year, respectively.
In other words, the number of current vapers in middle and high school has jumped by roughly 1.5 million since last year, now totaling 3.6 million kids, Gottlieb said.
The “alarming” surge in adolescent e-cigarette use prompted health officials to release these numbers “earlier than usual” in hopes of spurring immediate action, according to the FDA.
“Not only are we seeing a staggering increase in the number of high schoolers who use e-cigarettes, we’re seeing that more and more of them have moved beyond experimentation and are using e-cigarettes almost daily,” Dr. Colleen A. Kraft, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said in an emailed statement.
The rapid spread of e-cigarettes — which work by heating a liquid containing nicotine until it vaporizes — was flagged in a 2016 report by the US Surgeon General that cited a 900% increase in e-cigarette use by high school students from 2011 to 2015. E-cigarette use declined for the first time in 2016 but held steady — under 12% — the following year. Now, that number is 20.8%.
“This spike in use threatens to stall or reverse the substantial public health gains we’ve made by reducing tobacco use overall, and especially among children,” Gottlieb said.

Statement from FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, M.D., on proposed new steps to protect youth by preventing access to flavored tobacco products and banning menthol in cigarettes

Statement from FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, M.D., on proposed new steps to protect youth by preventing access to flavored tobacco products and banning menthol in cigarettes

. . .

Almost all adult smokers started smoking when they were kids. Nearly 90 percent started smoking before the age of 18, and 95 percent by age 21. Only about 1 percent of cigarette smokers begin at age 26 or older. When I announced the FDA’s Comprehensive Plan for Tobacco and Nicotine Regulation in July 2017, I made clear my concerns about kids’ use of e-cigarettes, especially those products marketed with obviously kid-appealing flavors. At the time, however, the trends in youth use appeared to be changing in the right direction – reported e-cigarette use among high school students, which peaked at 16.0 percent in 2015, had decreased to 11.3 percent in 2016 and held steady in 2017. What I did not predict was that, in 2018, youth use of e-cigarettes and other ENDS products would become an epidemic.

Today, the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are publishing data from the 2018 National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS). The data from this nationally representative survey, conducted of middle and high school students, show astonishing increases in kids’ use of e-cigarettes and other ENDS, reversing years of favorable trends in our nation’s fight to prevent youth addiction to tobacco products. These data shock my conscience: from 2017 to 2018, there was a 78 percent increase in current e-cigarette use among high school students and a 48 percent increase among middle school students. The total number of middle and high school students currently using e-cigarettes rose to 3.6 million — that’s 1.5 million more students using these products than the previous year. Additionally, more than a quarter (27.7 percent) of high school current e-cigarette users are using the product regularly (on 20 or more days in the past month). More than two-thirds (67.8 percent) are using flavored e-cigarettes. Both these numbers have risen significantly since 2017.

These increases must stop. And the bottom line is this: I will not allow a generation of children to become addicted to nicotine through e-cigarettes. We won’t let this pool of kids, a pool of future potential smokers, of future disease and death, to continue to build. We’ll take whatever action is necessary to stop these trends from continuing.

Over the past months, the FDA has worked aggressively to address youth use of e-cigarettes.

We deployed a range of our regulatory tools.

We launched a multi-pronged Youth Tobacco Prevention Plan. We escalated enforcement against retailers who illegally sell ENDS products to minors. We partneredwith the Federal Trade Commission to target e-liquid manufacturers whose products used misleading, kid-appealing imagery that mimicked juice boxes, lollipops and other foods. We worked with eBay to remove listings for these products on their websites. We launched innovative campaigns, including “The Real Cost” Youth E-Cigarette Prevention Campaign, to educate teens about the consequences of addiction to e-cigarettes.

And I made clear – in speeches, in statements and in interviews – that we were closely watching what appeared to be disturbing trends. I repeatedly said that, although we continue to believe that non-combustible tobacco products may provide an important opportunity to migrate adult smokers away from more harmful forms of nicotine delivery, these opportunities couldn’t come at the expense of addicting a generation of kids to nicotine. I told the manufacturers of e-cigarettes that the youth use of their products was an existential threat to this innovation. In short, over the past year we weren’t sitting still. And we weren’t quiet about our concerns. And yet these deeply disturbing trends continued to build.

In September, after receiving the raw data from the NYTS survey, I took additional action. I called on manufacturers to step up, to take voluntary actions to prevent youth access to these products and to take meaningful steps to curb their youth appeal. Some manufacturers have already responded to these requests and pledged to take some meaningful voluntary steps to curb youth access and appeal to their products. I also said that the FDA would be re-evaluating our own policy approach and that all options would be considered. Given the startling and disturbing youth use rates in the 2018 NYTS data being released today, it’s clear that we must do more – specifically, several policy changes to target what appear to be the central problems – youth appeal and youth access to flavored tobacco products.

Some of these changes would involve revisiting the FDA’s compliance policy, issued in 2017, which extended the dates by which manufacturers of deemed tobacco products that were on the market as of Aug. 8, 2016, were expected to submit premarket applications to the FDA for review (after receipt of an application, the FDA reviews the application and determines if the product meets the applicable statutory standard to be marketed). Under that policy of enforcement discretion, the premarket application compliance date for newly regulated combustible tobacco products, including certain cigars and pipe tobacco, was extended to August 2021. The premarket application compliance date for newly regulated non-combustible tobacco products was extended to August 2022. This applied to most ENDS or e-cigarettes.

Today, I’m directing the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) to revisit this compliance policy as it applies to deemed ENDS products that are flavored, including all flavors other than tobacco, mint and menthol. The changes I seek would protect kids by having all flavored ENDS products (other than tobacco, mint and menthol flavors or non-flavored products) sold in age-restricted, in-person locations and, if sold online, under heightened practices for age verification.

These changes will not include mint- and menthol-flavored ENDS. This reflects a careful balancing of public health considerations. Among all ENDS users, data suggests that mint- and menthol-flavored ENDS are more popular with adults than with kids. One nationally representative survey showed that, among ENDS users aged 12-17 years old, 20 percent used mint- and menthol-flavored ENDS while, among adult ENDS users, 41 percent used mint- and menthol-flavored ENDS. Any approach to mint- and menthol-flavored ENDS must acknowledge the possibility that the availability of these flavors in ENDS may be important to adult smokers seeking to transition away from cigarettes. Moreover, I recognize that combustible cigarettes are still sold in menthol flavor, including in convenience stores. I don’t want to create a situation where the combustible products have features that make them more attractive than the non-combustible products. Or a situation where those who currently use menthol-flavored cigarettes might find it less attractive to switch completely to an e-cigarette. This is a difficult compromise that I’m trying to strike, recognizing the public health risk posed by cigarettes still being available in menthol flavor.

But at the same time, I’m deeply concerned about the availability of menthol-flavored cigarettes. I believe these menthol-flavored products represent one of the most common and pernicious routes by which kids initiate on combustible cigarettes. The menthol serves to mask some of the unattractive features of smoking that might otherwise discourage a child from smoking. Moreover, I believe that menthol products disproportionately and adversely affect underserved communities. And as a matter of public health, they exacerbate troubling disparities in health related to race and socioeconomic status that are a major concern of mine. Although I’m not proposing revisions to the compliance policy for the mint- and menthol flavors in e-cigarettes at this time, we need to address the impact that menthol in cigarettes has on the public health.

I’m also aware that there are potentially important distinctions even between mint- and menthol-flavored e-cigarette products. I’m particularly concerned about mint-flavored products, based on evidence showing its relative popularity, compared to menthol, among kids. So, I want to be clear that, in light of these concerns, if evidence shows that kids’ use of mint or menthol e-cigarettes isn’t declining, I’ll revisit this aspect of the current compliance policy.

In addition, I’m directing CTP to revisit the compliance policy for all flavored ENDS products (other than tobacco, mint and menthol flavors or non-flavored products) that are sold online without additional, heightened age-verification and other restrictions in place. As part of that effort, I’m directing CTP to publish additional information regarding best practices for online sales.

 

. . .

 

Here are additional details regarding the policy framework that Commissioner Gottlieb seeks to advance (pulled directly from FDA Press Announcement):

  1. Flavored ENDS products that are not sold in an age-restricted, in-person location.
    • Have all flavored ENDS products (other than tobacco, mint and menthol flavors or non-flavored products) sold in age-restricted, in-person locations. All ENDS products, including e-liquids, cartridge-based systems and cigalikes, in flavors except tobacco, mint and menthol, would be included. For instance, the proposed policy would apply to flavors such as cherry, vanilla, crème, tropical, melon and others.
    • To advance this goal, the FDA is revisiting the compliance policy on PMTA authorization for such flavored products sold in physical locations where people under the age of 18 are permitted.
    • The FDA is not revisiting the compliance policy with respect to ENDS products sold exclusively in age-restricted locations – for instance, a stand-alone tobacco retailer (such as a vape shop) that adequately prevents persons under the age of 18 from entering the store at any time; or, a section of an establishment that adequately prevents entry of persons under the age of 18 and the flavored ENDS products are not visible or accessible to persons under the age of 18 at any time.
    • At this time, ENDS products with tobacco, mint or menthol flavors, as well as any non-flavored ENDS products, sold in any location, would not be included in any policy revisions. This distinction among flavors seeks to maintain access for adult users of these products, including adults who live in rural areas and may not have access to an age-restricted location, while evidence of their impacts continues to develop. It also recognizes that combustible cigarettes are currently available in menthol in retail locations that are not age-restricted. This approach is informed by the potential public health benefit for adult cigarette smokers who may use these ENDS products as part of a transition away from smoking.
    • The FDA, however, will not ignore data regarding the popularity of mint- and menthol-flavored ENDS among kids. We will continue to use all available surveillance resources to monitor the rates and use patterns among youth and adults for these products, and we will reconsider our policies with respect to these products, if appropriate.
  2. Flavored ENDS products (other than tobacco, mint and menthol flavors or non-flavored products) that are sold online.
    • In addition, we will seek to curtail the sale of applicable flavored ENDS products that are sold online without heightened age verification processes.
    • The FDA will be working to identify these heightened measures for age verification and other restrictions to prevent youth access via online sales. These best practices would be available soon, so sites can quickly adopt them.
    • Because no tobacco products should be sold to kids (including non-flavored ENDS products or those with tobacco, mint and menthol flavors), the FDA will continue to enforce the law whenever we see online sales of these products to minors and will closely monitor online sales of mint and menthol ENDS products.
  3. Flavored cigars.
    • Research shows that, compared to adults (25 or older) who smoke cigars, a higher proportion of youth who smoke cigars use flavored cigars. This data also indicates that eliminating flavors from cigars would likely help prevent cigar initiation by young people.
    • Given these public health concerns, I believe flavored cigars should no longer be subject to the extended compliance date for premarket authorization — regardless of the location in which the products are sold.
    • The FDA’s proposal to revisit the compliance policy for flavored cigars that are new tobacco products does not apply to the entire product category, as some products were considered “grandfathered.” Accordingly, the FDA intends to propose a product standard that would ban flavors in all cigars.
    • In July, the comment period for our ANPRM on flavors in tobacco productsclosed. The FDA has expedited review and analysis of these comments, and we intend to proceed with developing a proposed regulation. As included in the most recent Unified Agenda, the FDA intends to prioritize the issuance of this proposed rule.
  4. ENDS products that are marketed to kids.
    • The FDA will pursue the removal from the market of those ENDS products that are marketed to children and/or appealing to youth. This could include using popular children’s cartoon or animated characters, or names of products favored by kids like brands of candy or soda.
  5. Menthol in combustible tobacco products.
    • Informed by the comments from our ANPRM, the FDA will advance a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would seek to ban menthol in combustible tobacco products, including cigarettes and cigars.
    • The FDA started this process several years ago with an ANPRM. That ANPRM issued alongside the FDA’s preliminary scientific evaluation, which suggested menthol use is likely associated with increased smoking initiation by youth and young adults.
    • Now, armed with the additional years of data, comments from the public – and with the perspective of our Comprehensive Plan and its implementation – the FDA will accelerate the proposed rulemaking process to ensure that our policies on flavored tobacco products protect public health across the continuum of risk.

Brooklyn Center, Otter Tail Co. raise tobacco sales age to 21

By: Tim Blotz

POSTED: NOV 14 2018 09:44AM CST

UPDATED: NOV 14 2018 08:04PM CST

(KMSP) – On Tuesday, both Brooklyn Center and Otter Tail County voted to raise the tobacco sales age to 21.

This marks Minnesota’s 16th and 17th local governments to pass the change, according to a news release.

Otter Tail County is the first Minnesota county to adopt Tobacco 21. Brooklyn Center joins Edina, St. Louis Park, Bloomington, Plymouth, North Mankato, Shoreview, Falcon Heights, Minneapolis, St. Peter, Richfield, Roseville, Minnetonka, Excelsior, Lauderdale and Hermantown as Minnesota’s first Tobacco 21 cities.

Brooklyn Center also passed a policy that restricts the sale of e-cigarettes to adult-only tobacco stores. The final vote was unanimous and the policy is set to start on Dec. 21.

The final vote in Otter Tail County was unanimous, and the policy is set to start in January.

Senators override Tobacco 21 veto, send to House

Lawmakers in the House could soon decide to raise the age limit for buying tobacco products to 21 despite a veto from the governor.

The Senate approved the bill Wednesday with enough votes to override Gov. Bruce Rauner’s veto. It goes to the House next.

The measure passed both chambers in the spring, Rauner vetoed it.

The governor said that a Tobacco 21 law would just send smokers elsewhere to buy tobacco products rather than reducing the number of people who use it.

“Raising the age people can purchase tobacco products will push residents to buy tobacco products from non-licensed vendors or in neighboring states,” the governor wrote in his veto message.

Proponents of the measure said tobacco contains toxic chemicals and known carcinogens. They say it leads to increased public health costs.

State Sen. Dan McConchie opposed the override attempt. He said 18-year-olds already have adult responsibilities.

“You can marry,” he said. “You can have children that you’re financially responsible for. You can buy property. You can borrow money that you can’t afford to pay back. You can even decide who should be governor of the state of Illinois or should be president of the United States but you are not wise enough to be able to determine whether or not to buy and use this particular product.”

Other opponents had said the measure is nonsensical given that 18-year-olds can volunteer to serve and die for their country in the military.

State Sen. Michael Hastings, a veteran himself, dismissed that notion. He said a four-star general told him the military isn’t meeting its recruitment goals and this will help.

“The senior-most military member in our entire country last week stated to me that obesity and health-related issues are one of the No. 1 reasons why we are not able to meet the recruiting mission to the United States Army”

Despite objections, the measure passed with enough votes to override the governor’s veto. It now heads to the House. Veto session runs through the end of the month.

Hermantown under-21 tobacco sales ban approved

In a 5-0 vote, the Hermantown City Council voted on Monday to ban tobacco sales — including vaping devices — to those under 21 within city limits.

It makes Hermantown the 15th city in Minnesota — but the first in the northern part of the state — to pass a so-called T21 ordinance.

“I don’t think we can wait for the state to do something,” Councilor Kristi Schmidt said, in seeming response to a plea from Lake Effect Vapor owner Brian Annis that the city defer a decision to await action by the Minnesota Legislature.

“The state actually wants to see communities put a stake in the ground, if you will, and show how important it is,” Schmidt said.

Following the meeting, Annis said the ordinance wouldn’t change his business plans.

Annis was one of six people who spoke against the ordinance during an hourlong public hearing.

But they were outnumbered almost 3 to 1 by speakers favoring passage, including health professionals, parents and high school and middle school students.

Among them was Lauryn Biondi, a 14-year-old eighth-grader at Hermantown Middle School, who stood at the podium flanked by four of her classmates, all wearing navy blue “Hawks for Health Tobacco 21” T-shirts.

“I have seen several incidents in my school regarding vaping, and it is only November of my eighth-grade year,” Biondi said. “In my opinion, this shouldn’t have to be a problem.”

If 21 were the minimum age to buy the products, they would be less likely to get into the hands of her classmates, Biondi told the council.