Category: Flavors

Report: Flavored Vapes Remain Widely Available

Photo: kurgu128
Three months after a court-ordered deadline for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to decide what e-cigarette products can stay on the market, FDA delays have left e-cigarettes in kid-friendly flavors widely available across the country, according to a new report released by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids (CTFK).
Under a federal court order, e-cigarette manufacturers were required to submit marketing applications to the FDA by Sept. 9, 2020, and products that were the subject of timely applications were allowed to stay on the market for up to one year while the FDA reviewed the applications, a period that expired Sept. 9, 2021. The CTFK and other public health groups have urged the FDA to deny marketing applications for all flavored e-cigarettes because of “the clear evidence that flavored products have fueled an epidemic of youth e-cigarette use and nicotine addiction.”
The FDA has denied marketing applications for more than 1 million flavored e-cigarette products. However, the FDA has yet to issue decisions about the e-cigarette brands that have the largest market share or are most popular with kids, such as Juul, most Vuse products, NJOY, Blu, Smok and Suorin.
The FDA is also considering whether to authorize any menthol-flavored e-cigarettes despite the popularity of menthol products with kids, according to the CTFK.
In addition, more than 40 e-cigarette companies have filed lawsuits challenging the FDA’s marketing denial orders, and other companies—including Puff Bar, the flavored disposable e-cigarette that is now the most popular brand among kids—have started using synthetic nicotine because that substance is currently not regulated by the agency.
To assess the impact of the FDA’s actions to date on the availability of flavored e-cigarettes, the CTFK scanned five top online e-cigarette retailers and 43 brick-and-mortar stores in eight cities across the U.S. The group notes that the scan provides a snapshot of the current e-cigarette market and is not intended to be a representative sample of stores nationwide or online.
Key findings include that kid-friendly flavored e-cigarettes and nicotine e-liquids are still widely available; that the bestselling e-cigarette brands remain available for purchase; and that the most popular e-cigarette brands among youth are still available in flavors that appeal to youth, according to the CTFK.
The group has called on the FDA to act quickly on all remaining e-cigarette applications and deny authorization to all flavored e-cigarettes, including menthol-flavored products.
December 20, 2021
Denver Mayor Vetoes Flavor Ban, Council Could Override
Denver, Colorado Mayor Michael Hancock issued a veto Friday on a flavored vaping and tobacco ban approved by city council on Dec. 6. Approved in an 8-3 vote, the ban was slated to begin in 2023, pending Hancock’s signature.
“I want the public to understand I share the same objective that this bill promoted, but to do it in Denver, it would have only been, in my eyes, symbolic,” Hancock told Denver’s Fox31 news.
Credit: Daniel Jędzura
“Kids could have still crossed the street to Aurora and purchased the product. Businesses were going to be hurt because people would go across the street to procure the product, as opposed to coming into their store where it would be banned, and that to me is just not responsible legislation.”
The measure’s main sponsor, Councilwoman Amanda Sawyer, said she had been hearing about the potential for a veto.
“Disappointed, yes, but surprised, no,” Sawyer said. “When I spoke to the mayor earlier today, he and I talked about the potential for other options moving forward. And although we’ve been working on this for a year or so, you know some of those options could have absolutely been pursued by now and haven’t been, but I’m hopeful that we’ll be able to find a good partnership moving forward.”
Hancock said he isn’t sure what will happen Monday, where the City Council will have the decision to override his veto. The council will need 9 votes to do so.
December 11, 2021
Denver Becomes 7th Colorado City to Ban Vape Flavors
After months of debate, the Denver City Council approved a controversial ordinance that outlaws the sale of flavored vaping and other tobacco products, including menthol, beginning in July 2023. With Monday’s 8 to 3 vote, Denver becomes the seventh Colorado municipality to enact a ban on flavored e-cigarettes.
Credit: Kevin Ruck
Exemptions are in place for hookah products, natural cigars, pipe tobacco and harm-reduction products. The ordinance also calls for retailers to receive a warning for a first offense, however, subsequent offenses could lead to a store losing its tobacco retail license.
Proponents of the ban argue tobacco companies have long used predatory marketing of menthol to lure people of color, those with low incomes and youth — especially those who identify as LBGTQ+. Companies deny this, according to an article on denverite.com.
“This proposal tonight, it really is about public health,” said council member Jamie Torres, who represents District 3 and voted for the proposal. “Our kids aren’t property owners. They’re not business owners, but they are the ones who are also telling us we need to make this less accessible to them.”
City Council President Staci Gilmore argues that Denver already regulates alcohol and cannabis. “We want to keep kids safe, but we also want to allow adults to be adults,” said Gilmore, who represents District 11, and voted against the measure. Last month, councilmember Kevin Flynn called the bill an overreach affecting adults who want to use these products.
Grier Bailey and Jonathan Shaer, writing for Colorado Politics, state that Denver city councilmembers should consider what’s happened to Massachusetts since it passed a statewide flavor ban of its own in 2020. “The state gave up a well-regulated and enforced network of licensed retailers, lost over $140 million on the sale of menthol cigarettes, and public health advocates can’t claim any empirical health benefits from the ban as the data shows most consumers shifted their purchase habits to other states or other nicotine products and flavors,” they state. “Many Massachusetts retailers have reduced employee hours and even had to cut jobs. The flavor ban has been a failure at every level.”
December 7, 2021
Study: Flavored Vapes Could Help Teen Smokers Quit
New research suggests that flavored vaping products are much less harmful to young people than combustible cigarettes. They also have the potential to help current teen cigarette smokers quit.
Credit: Haiberliu
A new study from researchers at the University of East Anglia (UEA) reported the views and experiences of more than 500,000 youth under the age of 18. Lead researcher, Caitlin Notley, from UEA’s Norwich Medical School, said the study was conducted because there was a lot of concern that young people may start vaping because they are attracted to e-liquid flavors, and that it could potentially lead them to start smoking tobacco.
“We wanted to find out more about the links between vape flavors, the uptake of vaping among young people, and whether it leads to regular vaping and, potentially, tobacco smoking,” she said in a statement, adding that he research team studied all available evidence (58 studies) on the youth use of e-liquid flavors. “We found that flavored e-liquids are an important aspect of vaping that young people enjoy. This suggests that flavored products may encourage young people to switch away from harmful tobacco smoking towards less harmful vaping.”
Flavored vaping products also did not cause vapers to move on to combustible products, according to the study. may be an important motivator for e-cigarette uptake – but we found no evidence that using flavored e-liquids attracted young people to go on to take up tobacco smoking. “And we also found no adverse effects or harm caused by using liquid vape flavors,” Notley said. “However, there is also a need to monitor flavor use to ensure that young people who have never smoked are not attracted to taking up vaping.”
The team found that the overall quality of the evidence on use of e-cigarette flavors by young people was low. In particular, many studies did not clearly define e-liquid flavors and could not therefore be included within the review. The study was led by UEA in collaboration with researchers at University College London, the University of Bristol and University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust.
‘Youth Use of E-Liquid Flavours – A systematic review exploring patterns of use of e liquid flavours and associations with continued vaping, tobacco smoking uptake, or cessation’ was published in the journal Addiction on Nov. 17, 2021.
November 20, 2021
Bangor, Maine Bans Flavored Vaping Products
The city of Bangor, Maine has banned flavored vaping products, including e-cigarettes. The Bangor City Council voted 7-1 in favor of the ban, which will not go into effect until after the Maine Legislature reconvenes next year. The ordinance bans the sale and marketing of all flavored tobacco products in the city — including menthol cigarettes and e-cigarette flavors that have a taste or smell besides tobacco — beginning on June 1, 2022.
Credit: Ianm35
While the amended ordinance falls short of the pre-session ban that advocates hoped would spur the Legislature to action on a statewide prohibition on the sale of flavored tobacco, it is a strong gesture for a council with many members who believe the flavored tobacco issue was better solved at the state level, according to Maine Public Radio.
Opponents and supporters saw the Bangor vote as an important step in the fight to ban the sale of flavored tobacco at the state level. That bill, LD 1550, was reported out of committee earlier this year but had not come to a vote before the end of this year’s legislative session.
Many opponents brought up the contents of messages the National Association of Tobacco Outlets requested under Maine’s Freedom of Access Act that they said showed an effort by Bangor councilors, especially Councilor Sarah Nichols, to not include the voices of merchants in the process of crafting and debating the ordinance. Many of the exchanges are text messages between Nichols and Matt Moonen, who had brought the proposal to ban flavored tobacco to her. Moonen is the executive director of Equality Maine.
Earlier Monday, the New England Convenience Store and Energy Marketers Association had called for the council to suspend decisions on the tobacco ban and evaluate how councilors had acted. Sprague, one of several councilors to turn back those arguments, said such allegations had ultimately hurt the opponents’ case.
“The comments about the process and how the city has not supported open dialogue are insulting, if not repulsive,” Sprague said. City Council Chair Dan Tremble was the only councilor to vote against the ordinance. Nichols did not directly respond to statements about her during the meeting, though she referenced them in her remarks on why she supported the ordinance.
Retailers who continued to sell or market flavored tobacco products after the ordinance took effect would first face a warning, and then a $50 to $100 fine for their next offense within a two-year period after the warning. A fine of $300 to $1,000 would then be levied for each additional offense within that two-year period.
October 27, 2021
NYTS: Youth E-Cig Use Down 40% From Pre-Covid Results

Photo: flydragon
A study released by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that youth use of e-cigarettes fell sharply in 2021, the second consecutive year of major declines, according to the government’s annual National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS). An estimated more than 2 million U.S. middle and high school students reported currently using e-cigarettes in 2021, with more than 8 in 10 of those youth using flavored e-cigarettes.
The study shows that an estimated 11.3 percent (1.72 million) of high school students and an estimated 2.8 percent (320,000) of middle school students reported current e-cigarette use, lower than the 19.6 percent (high school) reported in 2020 and substantially lower than the 27.5 percent reported in 2019 (high school), according to previous FDA statements. Middle school vaping fell to 2.8 percent this year from 4.7 percent in 2020—a 40.4 percent decline. Middle school past 30-day vaping in 2020 fell 55.2 percent from 2019.
The report, published in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, was based on data from the 2021 NYTS, a cross-sectional, self-administered survey of U.S. middle (grades 6–8) and high (grades 9–12) school students. The study assessed current (used on one or more of the past 30 days) e-cigarette use; frequency of use; and use by device type, flavors and usual brand.
Credit: CASAA
Among youth who currently used e-cigarettes, the study found the most commonly used e-cigarette device type was disposables (53.7 percent), followed by prefilled or refillable pods or cartridges (28.7 percent), and tanks or mod systems (9.0 percent). Some in the industry have pointed out that “for the record, past-30-day ever use was 7.6%. The real numbers are: Disposables: 4.1%, Pods or cartridges: 2.2%, Tanks or mod systems: 0.7%,” a vaping advocate (@phil_w888) tweeted.
The FDA and CDC are also being accused of using the data to further an anti-vaping agenda. The Consumer Advocates for Smoke-free Alternatives Association (CASAA) tweeted that “Past-month HS vaping declines dramatically–down 47% from 3.6 million to 1.72 million–with daily vaping down from 4.4% to around 3%. Yet the general public wouldn’t know that from the negative spin made by Public Health.”
Administered Jan. 18- May 21, 2021, thus NYTS was the first to be fully conducted during the Covid-19 pandemic. Data were collected using an online survey to allow eligible students to participate in the classroom, at home or in some other place to account for various school settings during this time. Prior to the pandemic, the survey was conducted in person, inside the school classroom. Because of the changes in the way the survey was conducted this year, the FDA claims results of the 2021 NYTS cannot be compared to findings from previous surveys.
Robin Koval, president and chief executive of Truth Initiative, a nonprofit anti-nicotine advocacy group, emphasized that the sharp drop in youth vaping may be attributable to pandemic restrictions that kept youth at home. “Kids were not in school, they were not seeing friends,” Koval said. There was no mention of the drop from 2019 numbers that were measured before the Covid-19 pandemic began.
“These data highlight the fact that flavored e-cigarettes are still extremely popular with kids. And we are equally disturbed by the quarter of high school students who use e-cigarettes and say they vape every single day,” said Mitch Zeller, director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products. “The FDA continues to take action against those who sell or target e-cigarettes and e-liquids to kids, as seen just this year by the denial of more than one million premarket applications for flavored electronic nicotine delivery system products. It is critical that these products come off the market and out of the hands of our nation’s youth.”
September 30, 2021
FDA Urged to Deny Applications for All Flavored E-Cigarettes

Photo: Boki
Seven leading public health, medical and parent organizations are urging the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to expedite decisions on remaining marketing applications for e-cigarettes and promptly deny applications for all flavored e-cigarettes, including menthol-flavored products.
The organizations say they are concerned about these products’ appeal to youth and adverse impact on public health.
In a letter to Acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock, the groups also urged the FDA to prioritize enforcement against unauthorized flavored e-cigarettes with the largest market shares and products with the highest prevalence of youth use.
The groups sending the letter are the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, American Heart Association, American Lung Association, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, Parents Against Vaping e-cigarettes and Truth Initiative.
Since Sept. 9, the FDA has denied marketing applications for more than 1,167,000 products, but it has yet to issue decisions on e-cigarette brands with the highest market shares, such as Juul, Vuse, NJOY and Blu, which make up over 78 percent of the market, according to Nielsen data.
The health groups expressed particular concern that the FDA is still considering whether to authorize any menthol-flavored e-cigarettes and urged the FDA not to do so given the clear evidence that menthol is a flavor that appeals to and is widely used by kids.
“Contrary to the FDA’s August 26 statement that menthol e-cigarette products raise ‘unique considerations’ for purposes of FDA review, we do not believe there is anything ‘unique’ about menthol flavoring that would justify issuance of a marketing order,” the groups wrote in their letter. “Indeed, there is no question that when FDA decided to prioritize enforcement against cartridge-based e-cigarettes in flavors other than menthol and tobacco, youth shifted to using menthol-flavored products.”
September 29, 2021
Bidi Vapor to Market Menthol Sticks Despite MDO
Bidi Vapor will continue to manufacture and market its Artic (menthol) Bidi Stick in the United States despite receiving a marketing denial order (MDO) for the product, according to a trading update issued by Kaival Brands Innovations Group, the exclusive distributor of Bidi Vapor products.
As of Sept. 10, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has issued MDOs for some 992,000 electronic nicotine delivery system products from 168 companies. Bidi Vapor received an MDO for its non-tobacco flavored Bidi Sticks, including its Artic (menthol) Bidi Stick.
The company, however, insists the FDA mischaracterized the Artic (menthol) Bidi Stick as flavored. Because its Arctic Bidi Stick is menthol, Bidi Vapor believes that this product is not subject to the MDO.
“This position is aligned with the FDA’s public statements and press releases stating that tobacco and menthol ENDS are not deemed flavored products subject to the MDOs,” the company wrote in a press note. “Accordingly, along with the Classic (tobacco) Bid Stick, Bidi intends to continue to manufacture and market its Arctic (menthol) Bidi Stick for distribution by us.”
The company, which has historically derived nearly all its revenues from sales of flavored Bidi Sticks, appears willing to accept the risk of enforcement.
“If the FDA disagrees with Bidi Vapor’s position, issues a warning letter, or takes other action against Bidi Vapor resulting in us not being able to distribute the menthol (Arctic) Bidi Stick in the United States, or consumers do not purchase the tobacco (Classic) or menthol (Arctic) Bidi Sticks, our revenues and, thereby our financial results and condition, would be materially adversely affected, Kaival Innovations Group wrote in its news release.
For the three and nine months ended July 31, 2021, Arctic (menthol) Bidi Stick constituted approximately 15.2 percent and 18.5 percent, respectively, of the company’s total Bidi Sticks sales.
September 15, 2021
FDA Not Expected to Include ENDS in Menthol Ban

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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is unlikely to incorporate electronic nicotine-delivery devices (ENDS) into its proposed rulemaking to ban menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars, according to Azim Chowdhury and Neelam Gill.
Azim Chowdhury
Writing on the Food and Drug Law Institute’s website, the Keller and Heckman attorneys say that doing so would only further complicate a rulemaking that is already poised to receive hundreds of thousands of comments and will likely be litigated once final.
On April 29, 2021, the FDA announced that it will initiate a notice and comment rulemaking process to ban menthol-flavored cigarettes and all characterizing flavors in cigars and cigarillos within the next year.
In its announcement, the FDA did not mention ENDs, which come in a wide variety of nontobacco flavors and have been the subject of much debate.
Chowdhury and Gill believe Congress is more likely to defer to the premarket tobacco product application (PMTA) process rather than intervene and legislate a flavored ENDS ban. All ENDS products require FDA marketing authorization through that process.
But while a federal ban on flavored ENDS seems unlikely while FDA reviews the science and the manufacturers’ arguments, these products continue to face the threat of prohibition at the local level, according to the attorneys.
Many state and local authorities and attorneys general are pushing for bans or have requested the FDA to deny PMTAs for flavored ENDS. New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Massachusetts have already banned the sale of flavored ENDS while Maryland, California and Connecticut are considering similar measures.
August 27, 2021
CTFK Urges FDA to Deny All PMTAs for Flavored Vapes

Photo: Brian Jackson
The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids (CTFK) reiterated its call for banning all flavored vapor products following the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s denial of marketing applications for about 55,000 flavored e-cigarette products.
While welcoming the FDA decision, the CTFK noted the denial involved only a small percentage of the flavor products under review by the FDA. “
“The FDA’s action covers just a fraction of the more than 6.5 million tobacco products for which the FDA has received marketing applications, and it does not include any e-cigarette brands with a significant market share or that are most popular with kids, such as Juul, the number one youth brand,” CTFK President Matthew L. Myers wrote in a statement.
“Today’s action will be effective in reversing the youth e-cigarette epidemic only if FDA also denies the applications for all flavored e-cigarettes (those with flavors other than tobacco), as well as high-nicotine products like Juul that put kids at risk of addiction.”
According to the 2020 National Youth Tobacco Survey, 3.6 million kids use e-cigarettes, including nearly one in five high school students. The CTFK blames flavored e-cigarettes for this situation. Eighty-three percent of youth e-cigarette users report using flavored products, and 70 percent of youth users say they use e-cigarettes because of the flavors, according to the organization.
“To protect our kids and end the youth e-cigarette epidemic, the FDA should not authorize the sale of any flavored or high-nicotine e-cigarettes,” wrote Myers.
The FDA must decide whether to grant marketing applications for e-cigarettes by Sept. 9.
August 27, 2021