Washington: The Food and Drug Administration announced on Thursday that it has written warning letters to numerous merchants who sell disposable e-cigarettes with fruit and candy flavours, including the most popular brand right now, Elf Bar.
It's the latest effort by regulators to stop the influx of unauthorised disposable vapes into US stores in recent years.
Elf Bar, Esco Bar, and two other brands' shipments can now be seized at US ports thanks to FDA orders issued last month. All of the products lack FDA approval and have flavours like cotton candy, which authorities claim may appeal to teenagers.
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In its most recent action, the FDA claimed that it had warned 189 petrol stations, vape shops and other merchants.
In an interview, Brian King, the director of the FDA's tobacco centre, said, "We're not going to sit idly by as bad actors make money off the sale of illegal products that are addicting our country's youth. Our ongoing efforts to address those products, especially flavoured disposable products, include today's action.
The FDA has attempted to control the multibillion-dollar vaping industry for years, but separate data released by government researchers on Thursday shows that unlicensed e-cigarettes continue to be introduced.
According to an analysis by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, there were 184 e-cigarette brands in the US at the beginning of 2020 and 269 by the end of 2022.
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The increase occurred at the same time that disposable e-cigarettes became more well-liked. According to the analysis, the share of disposables in vaping sales increased from 24.7 percent in early 2020 to nearly 52 percent by the end of the previous year. Data from IRI, which compiles sales data from convenience stores, gas stations and other retailers, was examined by researchers from the CDC and a nonprofit organisation called Truth Initiative.
By the end of last year, Elf Bar was the third-best-selling e-cigarette and the best-selling disposable in the US. Sales of only the Juul and Vuse reusable e-cigarettes from Reynolds American were higher.
Elf Bar was mentioned by the FDA and CDC in a different report about thousands of calls to US poison centres about e-cigarettes, mostly from kids under the age of five.
Liquid nicotine can result in seizures, convulsions, vomiting, and brain damage when accidentally consumed. Over the past ten years, reports of nicotine poisoning have fluctuated, but according to government scientists, calls increased by more than 30% between last spring and March of this year.
In 95% of the cases, brand information was not reported; however, when it was, Elf Bar was the most frequently mentioned product. Despite the lack of information, FDA's King referred to the numerous reports of Elf Bar as a "canary in the coal mine."
The goal, according to King, is to stop problems before they have a chance to grow even bigger.
Elf Bar, which is made by the Chinese company iMiracle Shenzhen, is one of a number of knockoff e-cigarettes that have followed in the footsteps of Puff Bar, a well-known disposable brand whose sales briefly reached the hundreds of millions after authorities cracked down on older vaping products like Juul.
Early in 2020, the FDA only allowed the flavours menthol and tobacco, which are more well-liked by adults, in cartridge-based reusable e-cigarettes like Juul. On the other hand, since disposable e-cigarettes are thrown away after use, the flavour restriction did not apply to them.
Puff Bar relaunched after the FDA attempted to remove it from the market and claimed that it was now using laboratory-made nicotine, which was exempt from the FDA's initial control over nicotine derived from tobacco. Most manufacturers of disposable goods used the same strategy.
The gap was closed by Congress last year. Companies were required by law to take their vapes off the market and submit FDA applications, but new products keep coming out.