No Timeline For Federal Flavored Vape Ban, According to FDA

 The FDA told lawmakers this week that it is waiting on the White House to make the final call on when new vaping and e-cigarette regulations will be released.

Members of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions inquired to FDA director for Tobacco Products, Mitch Zeller, about when the newly established e-cigarette regulations would go into effect. Zeller referred them to the White House

The Trump administration promised in September to initiate a ban on all e-cigarette flavors after a wave of vaping-related injuries began to plague the nation. There remains some equivocality in whether this executive declaration to ban flavored vaping was a serious statement a hollow promise to relieve mounting political pressures.

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said at the committee hearing that she worries that the administration is weakening its initial policy plan and may exclude menthol from the e-cigarette flavor ban.“To fully protect kids, does this administration’s ban of unauthorized flavors need to include menthol and mint flavors?” Murray asked the committee.

According to the CDC, menthol and mint flavor use amongst teens has risen parallel to the decrease in the availability of other fruity flavors.

Zeller told the Committee that he can assure its members that the process of establishing regulations is still deliberative. However, he cannot give a deliberative timeline for the ban. “I really would refer you and the committee to the White House to ask specific questions about where we are.”

The proposed regulations would ban all non tobacco e-cigarette flavors. Manufacturers wanting to sell e-cigarette flavors would have to submit and be approved for premarket authorizations before their flavored products could be sold.