(AGENPARL) – NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT (USA) gio 30 giugno 2022

In late June, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ordered Juul Labs Inc. to remove all of its e-cigarettes from the U.S. market, a move applauded by many concerned about e-cigarette use among youth. (Soon after, a U.S. court of appeals granted the company an emergency stay, temporarily blocking the FDA’s order; Juul is now pursuing a formal stay.) 

Juul came under the FDA’s scrutiny in recent years when the company’s fruit- and candy-flavored e-cigarettes became popular with teenagers who had never used tobacco products before. E-cigarettes are handheld, battery-powered devices that heat a liquid, which usually contains nicotine and flavorings, among other things. A user inhales the vapor, which is why using an e-cigarette is often called vaping.

E-cigarettes, which arrived in the United States around 2007, were originally intended for adults as a way to quit smoking traditional or “combustible” cigarettes. However, the various flavors and flashy marketing campaigns attracted the attention of teenagers, public health experts say.  

In 2018, the FDA warned of an epidemic of teens who were becoming addicted to nicotine through these products. More than 2 million middle and high school students use e-cigarettes, and almost 85% of them use flavored products, according to the 2021 National Youth Tobacco Survey from the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

To address these concerns, in early 2020 the FDA announced an order that would stop most flavored vape pods (also known as cartridges) from being sold. Then, in April 2020, the agency began reviewing all U.S. e-cigarette products to determine which could stay on the market and which should be removed. The decision for each is based on whether the products offer more public health benefits (helping smokers quit) rather than harm (hooking youth on nicotine).

The review process is called “premarket evaluation.” A federal judge ordered the FDA to complete its process by September 2021. On the deadline last year, the FDA said it had ruled on 93% of the products, but needed more time to decide on Juul and other major applicants. In October 2021, the first product to receive an “okay” from the FDA was R.J. Reynolds’ Vuse Solo refillable device and corresponding tobacco-flavored pods.

The FDA’s recent ruling on Juul is only the latest in a heated public health debate about e-cigarettes, including whether or not they help smokers quit and what risks they pose to youth. 

Below, our Yale Medicine experts in pulmonology, oncology, and tobacco addiction discuss the history of this debate as well as potential implications from these latest developments.

Fonte/Source: https://www.yalemedicine.org/news/juul-e-cigarette-ban