Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
FDA Chief Predicts An 'Existential Threat' To E-Cigarette Industry Unless Rates Of Young People Vaping Decrease
The Hill: FDA Threatens To Pull E-Cigarettes Off The Market
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says that e-cigarettes face an uncertain future in U.S. markets unless youth smoking rates drop over the next year. Speaking at a public hearing Friday in Silver Spring, Md., FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said he could see the entire category of e-cigarette and vaping products removed from store shelves if companies don’t stop marketing such products to youth. (Bowden, 1/19)
The Hill: FDA: Level Of Young People Addicted To Vaping May Require Drug Therapies
The Trump administration's Food and Drug Administration (FDA) commissioner says levels of e-cigarette use among young people are reaching new heights even as traditional cigarette use drops to historic lows. Commissioner Scott Gottlieb remarked at a public hearing Friday in Silver Spring, Md., that it was shocking to him that the rate of young people addicted to e-cigarettes use, commonly referred to as "vaping," had reached levels where FDA-approved methods for quitting e-cigarettes could be necessary. (Bowden, 1/18)
Meanwhile, in Virginia —
The Washington Post: Virginia Considers Hiking The Smoking And Vaping Age To 21
Some prominent legislators are backing a bill to raise the minimum age for buying cigarettes and vapes from 18 to 21 in Virginia, a state where tobacco once loomed so large that images of the leaves adorn its stately Capitol. Alarmed by rampant vaping by teens, a group of Republicans and Democrats in both the House and Senate rolled out legislation last week targeting an industry whose roots in the commonwealth stretch back four centuries to the Jamestown Colony. (Vozzella and Schneider, 1/20)
