In Lively Meeting With Vaping Stakeholders, Trump Signals Hesitancy On Flavor Ban, Support Of Raising Age Limits

The Associated Press: Trump Hears Opposing Viewpoints In Debate Over Youth Vaping
President Donald Trump on Friday heard opposing viewpoints in the debate over youth vaping but offered no insight into where he would ultimately come down on the issue after promising two months ago that he would ban most flavored e-cigarettes but later backtracking. He said the administration would announce its plan “very soon.” (Superville, 11/22)

Reuters: Trump Says Ban Of Some Flavored E-Cigarette Products Could Lead To Illegal Sales
U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday expressed concerns that enacting his administration's proposed ban on many flavored e-cigarette and vaping products would lead to people obtaining them illegally. Trump also raised worries during a raucous meeting with public health and industry representatives that illegal e-cigarette and vaping products could be substandard. (11/22)

The New York Times: Trump Warns A Flavor Ban Would Spawn Counterfeit Vaping Products
“If you don’t give it to them, it’s going to come here illegally,” Mr. Trump said of flavored products, referring to how a “prohibition” would only increase the use of black-market products. “That’s the one problem I can’t seem to forget,” he said. “You just have to look at the history of it. Now, instead of having a flavor that’s at least safe, they’re going to be having a flavor that’s poison.” But e-cigarettes have been on the market for more than a decade, at least, and have grown increasingly popular, with little scientific evidence or oversight to prove they are safe. (Karni and Kaplan, 11/22)

USA Today: Vaping Crisis: Trump Calls For Minimum Age Of 21 For Buying E-Products
At one point, Sen. Mitt Romney, Republican from Utah, who was seated next to Trump, said "most adults are not using flavors," prompting vaping industry leaders to shout back, "yes they do," offering adult sales statistics. Romney responded by pointing to Juul voluntarily ending flavors, but other companies said many or most of sales are of flavored products. Romney clashed multiple times with vaping advocates. (Stanglin, 11/22)

The Washington Post: In Apparent Shift, Trump Warns About Dangers Of Banning Flavored E-Cigarettes
At the same time, Trump indicated support for legislation to raise the federal minimum age for buying tobacco products to 21 from 18, which is pending in Congress. While health groups generally support an age increase, they say “Tobacco 21,” as it is called, is not enough to check the increase in teen vaping. “Raising the age doesn’t fix the main problem,” Gary Reedy, chief executive officer of the American Cancer Society, said after the meeting. “As long as the flavors are there, kids are going to be enticed.” (McGinley and Wan, 11/22)

CNN: Trump's White House Meeting On Vaping Results In Contentious Debate
Besides raising the age limit to 21, the Vapor Technology Association's proposed plan includes restricting marketing practices and enforcing penalties for retailers that sell to minors, among other controls. In the meeting, "what was interesting was that other than raising the age to 21, the public health advocates were virtually silent" on the other restriction proposals, Abboud said. "This is the fundamental problem that we have. They simply want a ban and nothing short of a ban and bans don't work." (Howard, 11/22)

Bloomberg: Trump Opens Door To Vaping Debate As He Waffles On Policy
“The president had, in the room, every major physician group and every major health group, and to a person, and an organization, their message was consistent. You have to ban flavors if you’re going to reduce the youth e-cigarette epidemic,” said Matthew Myers, president of Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, who sat directly across from the president. “He asked a lot of questions and we’re just going to have to wait and see where it comes out.” (Wingrove and Porter, 11/23)

Reuters: Ban On Flavored Vapes Could Lead To Loss Of 150,000 Jobs, $8.4 Billion Sales Hit: Report
A potential U.S. ban on e-cigarette flavors could result in a loss of more than 150,000 jobs and a direct sales hit of $8.4 billion, according to a report released on Friday by a vaping industry trade group. Two months ago President Donald Trump's administration announced a sweeping plan to ban all e-cigarette and vaping flavors except tobacco, but a final decision has not been made. (11/22)

In other vaping news: how Juul became so popular, delays that left kids at risk of poisoning, the obscured message that vaping is still safer than traditional cigarettes, and more —

The New York Times: How Juul Hooked A Generation On Nicotine
In the face of mounting investigations, subpoenas and lawsuits, Juul Labs has insisted that it never marketed or knowingly sold its trendy e-cigarettes and flavored nicotine pods to teenagers. As youth vaping soared and “juuling” became a high school craze, the company’s top executives have stood firm in their assertion that Juul’s mission has always been to give adult smokers a safer alternative to cigarettes, which play a role in the deaths of 480,000 people in the United States each year. “We never wanted any non-nicotine user and certainly nobody underage to ever use Juul products,” James Monsees, a co-founder of the company, testified at a congressional hearing in July. (Creswell and Kaplan, 11/23)

PBS NewsHour: Why Are So Many Kids Addicted To Vaping — And What Will Trump Do About It?
With thousands sickened and 47 dead from a mysterious lung illness linked to vaping, teenage use of electronic cigarettes is still surging. As the health risks grow, pressure is building on President Trump to take action, with particular focus on limiting the flavored tobacco products that appeal to kids. (Brangham, 11/22)

USA Today: Vaping Law Delays Left Kids At Risk Of Nicotine Poisoning
Federal regulators this year stepped up efforts to protect young children from a deadly vaping threat: accidents involving liquid nicotine in bottles with enticing candy colors and flavors. In February, the Consumer Product Safety Commission sent out notices about a safety requirement that it had previously ignored. In addition to child-resistant caps, vape juice containers must dramatically limit how much can spill out of an open bottle. A vial can contain enough poison to kill four toddlers.  (Stein, 11/25)

Vox: Vaping Is Still Safer Than Smoking. That Message Is Getting Dangerously Muddled.
Amid the many controversies about vaping’s health effects, there’s one thing public health experts agree on: E-cigarettes are less harmful than regular cigarettes. Tobacco kills up to half of its users, which is why cigarettes are considered the deadliest consumer product ever introduced to the market. Even with the uncertainty about vaping’s long-term risks, researchers have found that vapers are exposed to fewer toxins and carcinogens than cigarette smokers. The public, meanwhile, seems increasingly confused. (Belluz, 11/22)

The Associated Press: Michigan Halts Sale Of Marijuana E-Cigs Unless Re-Tested
Michigan on Friday halted the sale of marijuana vaping products until they are tested for a compound that has been identified as a culprit in e-cigarette-related lung illnesses. The state Marijuana Regulatory Agency’s emergency rules, which prohibit vitamin E acetate, apply to existing medical marijuana businesses and those in the process of being licensed to sell for recreational use as soon as Dec. 1. (Eggert, 11/22)

Bloomberg: Duke University Was Built On A Cigarette Fortune. Now It May Ban Vaping On Its Campus
At Duke Unversity, at the epicenter of North Carolina’s tobacco country, a tense showdown over college vaping and its health risks is roiling the campus. The standoff began with an Oct. 7 letter to the student-run newspaper, The Chronicle, from Loretta Que, a pulmonologist at Duke University Medical Center. The letter, co-signed by seven other faculty members, urged the university to ban vaping in the wake of a wave of life-threatening lung injuries among young people. Que and her colleagues have themselves treated half a dozen such cases of serious vaping-related lung disease at the medical center, including two college students. (Rupp and Griffin, 11/23)

Bloomberg: Juul Co-Founder Ordered To Answer Questions In Tobacco Lawsuit 
A Florida state court judge ordered the co-founder of the e-cigarette maker Juul Labs Inc. to answer questions under oath in a case involving a woman suing the cigarette-maker Philip Morris USA. While Juul has challenged the judge’s order, it’s the first time that the Silicon Valley startup has been dragged into a thicket of longstanding tobacco product-liability litigation since it sold a $12.8 billion stake of the company to Altria Group Inc., which owns Philip Morris USA, the maker of Marlboro cigarettes. (Etter, 11/22)