Arizona Attorney General Urges FDA to Ban Flavored E-Cigarettes

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes has sent a letter to the FDA urging it to ban the sale of flavored e-cigarettes and crack down on youth-targeted marketing.

According to a Sept. 7 report by Cronkite, Arizona Attorney General KRIS Mayes joined attorneys general from 32 other states in sending a joint letter to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), calling for a ban on flavored e-cigarettes and tougher action against marketing aimed at young people. 

Mayes, Arizona’s current attorney general, warned the FDA in the letter:

“Young people in our country need more guardrails to prevent tobacco use and addiction.” 

Statistics show that thousands of teenagers continue to use e-cigarettes, especially flavored products. Marketing strategies targeting youth are also a serious concern. 

Although the legal age to purchase tobacco products in the United States is 21, underage users continue to use tobacco products. 

To reduce the appeal of e-cigarettes to young people, the letter proposed several actions for the FDA, including banning all “non-tobacco-flavored” e-cigarettes, limiting nicotine concentrations, banning disposable e-cigarettes, and imposing stricter rules on youth marketing.

According to surveys by the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 3 million middle and high school students use tobacco products, including 2.5 million who use e-cigarettes—more than a quarter of them daily. Most of the e-cigarettes used are disposable products.