PD Editorial: FDA on target with crackdown on teen vaping

Teenagers are figuring out that smoking is a fool's game.

There's a reason that cigarettes are called coffin nails: Tobacco kills more Americans every year than guns, car accidents, alcohol and drug overdoses combined. Indeed, tobacco is the leading cause of preventable death in the U.S. and around the world.

Almost nine in 10 smokers started as teenagers, but federal data show that the number of teen smokers dropped almost 16 percent between 2011 and 2017. Unfortunately, large numbers of teens are taking up “vaping,” inhaling nicotine, often in kid-friendly flavors like mint and chocolate, from e-cigarettes, sleek dispensers that resemble pens or lipstick tubes. Some of them deliver nicotine at higher concentrations than traditional cigarettes.

Teen vaping is “an epidemic,” according to the head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

“I use the word epidemic with great care,” FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb wrote in a statement last week announcing a crackdown on marketing efforts that target teenagers. “E-cigs have become an almost ubiquitous - and dangerous - trend among teens.”

When they were introduced, e-cigarettes were promoted as a way to help smokers kick the habit. It appears that they're also becoming a way to hook another generation on nicotine.

The e-cigarette market grew 40 percent in 2017 alone, topping $1.1 billion in revenue. Juul, one of the biggest players, reported that its revenue increased 700 percent over the past year.

Teens appear to be one of the fastest-growing segments of the market. Schools report an explosion in their use, and California data indicate that, despite the state's success in reducing teen smoking, teens here are more likely to vape than their peers in other states.

The growth rate is alarming: The Washington Post reports that an as-yet unpublished survey shows an 75 percent increase in teen use this year alone - even though e-cigarettes aren't supposed to be sold to anyone under 21.

Even if these devices are less dangerous than cigarettes, as manufacturers claim, a study published in the medical journal JAMA pediatrics found that teens who vape are twice as likely as their peers to become regular smokers within a year.

“We cannot allow a whole new generation to become addicted to nicotine,” Gottlieb said.

To that end, he ordered the five biggest e-cigarette manufacturers to explain within 60 days how they plan to address the “epidemic” of teen use - or face removal of their products from the market.

The FDA also is sending warning letters to retails caught selling e-cigarettes to underage users, and fining repeat offenders.

We have frequently criticized the Trump administration's approach to health care, but Gottlieb is doing the right thing. Good for him - and good for the health of American teenagers who stand to benefit from his stance.

We would, however, like to see Gottlieb go one step further and reconsider a decision made by his agency last year to give manufacturers an extra five years to prove their products are as safe as traditional cigarettes. The new deadline is 2022.

Millions more teens could be hooked by then. We need to do better than that.

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