Over 50 health and advocacy groups have called on President Donald Trump and his administration to continue its plan to ban flavored e-cigarettes.
These organizations have been writing letters to US Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and first lady Melania Trump to urge the administration to stick to the plan to require companies to take their flavored e-cigarettes off the market, including mint and menthol.
They were responding to recent reports that the Trump administration could go back on its earlier stance by including exceptions for mint and menthol. However, the compliance policy on flavored products are yet to be finalized by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Among these organizations were the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Heart Association, the American Lung Association, the American Medical Association, the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
In the letters, the groups argue that the policy will be "weakened" if it would include such an exception. They wrote: "A policy that does not remove all flavored e-cigarettes will not solve the current epidemic of youth e-cigarette use. Youth who now use mint and menthol e-cigarettes will continue to do so, and youth who use flavors that are removed from the market will simply switch to mint and menthol."
To emphasize their point, they cited a recent FDA report which indicates that the percentage of high schoolers who vape using mint or menthol flavors has increased from 42.3% in 2017 and 51.2% in 2018 to 64% in 2019.
On the other hand, people who support flavored e-cigarettes claim that they're an important tool in getting adults to switch from combustible cigarettes. Gregory Conley, president of the American Vaping Association, argued: "A ban on flavored nicotine vapes will have zero impact on the health crisis we are seeing with illegal THC cartridges. What this will do is deprive many adult ex-smokers of the vape flavors they rely upon to stay smoke-free."
