An FDA pod vape ban would only serve to harm consumers

Washington, D.C.: In comments at the Brookings Institution this week, outgoing FDA chief Scott Gottlieb suggested the agency may take pod-based nicotine products off the shelves in order to combat teen vaping.

Yaël Ossowski, Deputy Director of the Consumer Choice Center calls Gottlieb's comments ridiculous, especially considering this would remove a product from the shelves that has become so important in helping smokers quit.

"A proposal to ban pod-based vape devices is probably one of the most anti-consumer and anti-health initiatives proposed by this FDA," said Ossowski.

"The mechanisms already exist to enforce the legal purchasing age of these products. Any retailer caught selling to minors should immediately be punished, not the millions of Americans who have transitioned to using pod-based vaping devices to get their nicotine from a less harmful source without the combustion of cigarettes," said Ossowski.

"Pods are only one version of vaping devices and they've been singled out because they're popular and effective for adult smokers. Rather than focusing their ire on products that have legitimately helped former smokers prolong their lives, they should seek to better educate youth communities on the concerns of taking up vaping.

"The youth smoking rate is at an all-time low, and that is thanks in part to the less harmful vaping technologies that have provided a market solution to the very real problem of tobacco and nicotine addiction.

"The FDA under Gottlieb's tenure has busied itself with making e-cigarettes and vaping technologies less accessible than conventional cigarettes, and for that, he will not be remembered well.

"Consumers want better and healthier alternatives, and vaping devices have provided that. Large-scale bans would do more harm than good," said Ossowski.

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The CCC represents consumers in over 100 countries across the globe. We closely monitor regulatory trends in Ottawa, Washington, Brussels, Geneva and other hotspots of regulation and inform and activate consumers to fight for #ConsumerChoice. Learn more at consumerchoicecenter.org.