The flavor ban was intended to crack down on teen vaping. Vape shop owners say they plan to sue over the new rule.
Previous efforts to prevent teens from getting e-cigarettes had failed, she said, so she set her sights on eliminating the fruity, sweet-flavored vapes that Nobody knows how many products will have to be removed from shelves. To date, there are only 17 FDA-approved products from three manufacturers that meet the criteria, and an FDA spokeswoman said they don’t know how many pre-2020 applications are still pending.
Indeed, walk into any vape shop and the shelves are lined with flavors like bubblegum, lemon drop, mango, lime, fruit punch — all of which will be outlawed when the law takes effect on Jan. 1, 2025. The practical effect of the bill, Maxon contends, is that Utah shop owners will be shut down and customers will be driven to gas stations and convenience stores that mostly sell products manufactured by the massive tobacco companies like Altria, which owns a portion of Juul, and R.J. Reynolds, the maker of the Vuse line of e-cigarettes. Those two
Nationally, states that have banned flavored e-cigarettes have seen some reduction in usage, among both adults and youth. One preprintfound that after Washington, New Jersey and New York eliminated flavored e-cigarettes, 8% of adults quit using them.