WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) today met with U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Scott Gottlieb to discuss recently announced regulations on e-cigarette flavorings, flavored cigars, and menthol cigarettes. Durbin thanked Gottlieb for his decision to implement stronger oversight on e-cigarette flavorings being sold to teenagers and kids, and urged him to take even stronger action moving forward.
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“E-cigarette use among children and teenagers is an epidemic, and I thanked Commissioner Gottlieb for finally moving his agency in the right direction by cracking down on the sale of kid-friendly flavors in e-cigarettes and cigars, and improving online age verification for sales of these addictive products. These are positive first steps, but more must be done to prevent Big Vape from trying new and creative ways to hook our children on their products. I promised Commissioner Gottlieb that I would continue to push the FDA to do as much as it can – without delay – so more American children aren’t becoming addicted to nicotine and starting a deadly habit for the rest of their lives,”Durbin said.
This year, Durbin and Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) introduced bipartisan legislation to crack down on kid-friendly flavorings in highly-addictive e-cigarettes and cigars. The bipartisan Stopping Appealing Flavors in E-Cigarettes for Kids (SAFE Kids) Act would place strong restrictions on e-cigarette flavorings and ban cigar flavorings altogether, and much of last week’s FDA announcement makes changes Durbin and Murkowski proposed in their bill.
In October, Durbin and Murkowski urged the FDA to immediately ban kid-friendly e-cigarette flavorings and restrict online sales of the addictive nicotine products.
Earlier this month, FDA Commissioner Gottlieb announced that his agency would work to ban flavors in cigars; ban menthol flavors in cigarettes; restrict online sales of e-cigarette products; and ban the sale of e-cigarette products in most retail stores and gas stations.
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