The federal government is cracking down on companies involved in the sale of nicotine products designed to look like juice boxes, candy and cookies.
The Food and Drug Administration and the Federal Trade Commission sent 13 warning letters to manufacturers, distributors and retailers who sell these products, which are e-liquids used in e-cigarettes. Several of the companies that received warning letters were also illegally selling the products to minors.
“No child should be using any tobacco product, and no tobacco products should be marketed in a way that endangers kids – especially by using imagery that misleads them into thinking the products are things they’d eat or drink,” FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said in a statement.
He warned children might think they are buying a different product, such as juice, and could become ill or die after consuming it. In a call with reporters Tuesday, Gottlieb said it was difficult to look at the products and see them as anything other than “deliberately designed in ways that they can be mistakenly confused by a child” and that children would think they are consuming a different product.
Some examples of the products mentioned in the warning letters include: “One Mad Hit Juice Box,” which looks like children’s apple juice boxes and smells like juice; “Vape Heads Sour Smurf Sauce,” which looks like War Heads candy; and “V’Nilla Cookies & Milk,” which looks like Nilla Wafers and Golden Oreo cookies.
Other products include “Whip’d Strawberry,” which looks like Reddi-wip dairy whipped topping, and “Twirly Pop,” which looks like a Unicorn Pop lollipop and is shipped with one.
“Nicotine is highly toxic, and these letters make clear that marketing methods that put kids at risk of nicotine poisoning are unacceptable,” said Acting FTC Chairman Maureen Ohlhausen.
Officials did not cite examples of children that were harmed by consuming the products, but Ohlhausen said the agencies had the authority to act in certain cases even without evidence of injury. According to a recent analysis of National Poison Data System data, there were 8,269 cases of e-cigarette and liquid nicotine exposures among children younger than six between January 2012 and April 2017.
Gottlieb said the latest actions on nicotine marketed to children was just one of many actions the agency would be taking in the months ahead. Last week, the agency sent warnings to 40 retailers that sold JUUL brand e-cigarettes to minors.
Companies who received the warning letters against selling kid-friendly nicotine products have two weeks to respond with a reply explaining how they will tackle the problem. If they take no action or refuse to make changes, the federal government could respond in other ways, including taking the products away or taking away a retailer’s license.
Mitch Zeller, director of the Center for Tobacco Products at the FDA, said the agency hoped the companies would comply.
The Trump administration is hoping to set up a way for e-cigarettes to go through a regulatory process so the devices can be shown as a less-harmful alternative to traditional smoking, and possibly even one way for smokers to quit. Gottlieb said he hoped the agency could still strike a balance between allowing e-cigarettes that opportunity and also keeping the products away from children.
He said he worried that examples such as these, of deliberately targeting children, would result in dwindling support on trying to achieve that balance.
