The Food and Drug Administration has ordered vape company Juul to stop selling its popular electronic cigarettes.
It marks the latest blow against the tobacco industry by the Biden administration.
It comes as part of a sweeping effort by the FDA to bring scientific scrutiny to the massive multi-billion dollar vaping industry after years of delays in regulations.
It comes one day after the Biden administration proposed a new rule to establish a maximum nicotine level in cigarettes and other tobacco products, in hopes of making them less addictive.
Juul was launched in 2015, and led the way in e-cigarettes. The company controlled 75 percent of the e-cigarette market in the United States by the third year. The order affects all of the Juul products on the U.S. market, which is the overwhelming source of the company’s sales.
The sleek cartridges and sweet flavors helped bring in an era of alternative nicotine products that experts say were especially attractive to younger people.
The sale of Juul flavors such as mint, mango and creme brûlée encourages teen smokers, experts say.
Teenage vaping rates declined during the Covid pandemic, but health experts and lawmakers continued to express concerns about nicotine in some e-cigs that were still on the market.
But the FDA decision did not specifically deal with the company’s relationship with youth vaping. Instead, it was based on what the FDA said was insufficient and conflicting data from the company about potentially harmful chemicals that could leach out of the liquid pods.
The e-liquid pods were not an immediate health threat, but there was not enough evidence to assess the potential risks.
FDA commissioner Dr. Robert Califf said that the action marked further progress on the agency’s commitment to ensuring all e-cigs and electronic nicotine products meet public health standards.
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