The Food and Drug Administration has banned e-cigarette sales to minors under the age of 18 on Thursday, a widely expected move.
The ban coincides with other regulations for e-cigarette products. More than 40 states already ban e-cigarette sales, but the FDA decision will mean a ban nationwide.
The agency issued other regulations for e-cigarette products, including a new approval process for products that hit the market.
The move to ban sales to minors comes as federal studies have shown usage of e-cigarettes has doubled among high school and middle school students in recent years.
The agency kept a controversial grandfather date that e-cigarette companies say could cripple their businesses. It requires new e-cigarette products to be reviewed by the agency before hitting the market. The grandfather date is Feb. 15, 2007, so e-cigarette products made before that date don’t need agency approval.
The e-cigarette industry has said that most e-cigarette products weren’t on the market before 2007, and that such a date is going to harm their business as they have to get approval for products already on the shelves.
Congress has stepped in as House appropriators tucked in a provision in an FDA appropriations bill that moves the grandfather date to when the regulations are finalized, which would be Thursday.
The FDA said that it doesn’t intend to enforce the premarket review requirements for up to three years, giving manufacturers time to submit the applications.
Other key provisions in the rule include banning the sale of tobacco products in vending machines, unless in an adult-only facility, like a bar.
The rule also applies to other types of tobacco products such as pipes, hookah and cigars.
Now the agency will regulate the manufacturing, import, packaging, labeling, ads and sale of hookah tobacco, cigars and pipe tobacco.
A hookah is a large water pipe that can be used to smoke different types of tobacco.
The agency said that the announcement is to help curb smoking rates in new tobacco products.
“As cigarette smoking among those under 18 has fallen, the use of other nicotine products, including e-cigarettes, has taken a drastic leap. All of this is creating a new generation of Americans who are at risk of addiction,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell in a statement.
The e-cigarette industry didn’t take kindly to the regulations.
The Vapor Technology Association said the regulation represents a “one-size-fits-all” approach that will hamper efforts by smokers to kick the habit.
“Today’s action by the FDA will do nothing to improve our nations’ public health objectives,” said Tony Abboud, the trade group’s legislative director. “To the contrary, today’s action will yank responsibly manufactured vapor products from the hands of adult smokers and replace them with the tobacco cigarettes they had been trying to give up.”
Other groups were worried about the impact on small “vaping” shops that sell customized vape pens and a large selection of flavors.
“If the FDA’s rule is not changed by Congress or the courts, thousands of small businesses will close in two to three years,” said Gregory Conley, president of the American Vaping Association. “Tens of thousands of jobs will be lost and consumer choice will be annihilated. Absurdly, ex-smokers will face the prospect of having to purchase products that help them remain smoke-free on the black market.”
On the flip side, public health advocates cheered the agency’s regulations.
“While this regulation represents an important step forward, the FDA must now use the full force of its authority to maximize our potential to reduce tobacco’s deadly impact,” said Chris Hansen, president of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, in a statement.
The prominent patient group had criticized the agency since it took more than two years to finalize the rule.
