Trump heads passionate debate on vaping, leaves issue unsettled
- by Virginia Carter
- in World Media
- — Nov 24, 2019
MA lawmakers voted this week to ban flavored vaping products and menthol cigarettes alike.
Tony Abboud, executive director of the Vapor Technology Association, said by telephone after the meeting that he urged the administration to adopt its "21 and Done" proposal, which calls for increasing the age limit to 21 and adopting a series of marketing restrictions.
That solution appears to be a substitute for Trump's September 11 proposal of a plan to remove from the market all youth-friendly flavored vaping products, including mint and menthol.
"The president appreciated the candid conversation", the White House said.
That meeting finally came together on November 22.
Trump had been expected to finalize a ban on most flavored e-cigarettes earlier this month, but backed off after advisers convinced him such a step could alienate voters who would be financially or otherwise affected by a vaping ban, according to two White House and Trump campaign officials who were not authorized to publicly discuss the president's private conversations.
Mr. Romney appeared unmoved, saying at one point: "Utah is a Mormon state, and half the kids in high school are vaping". Competitors like NJOY and Vuse also argued that Juul made a decision to stop selling flavors as a long-game move to wait out smaller competitors, who may be driven out of business if a flavor ban goes through. The company ended online sales of those flavors in October.
"66 percent of these students believe that they are only vaping flavored liquid, when in reality 99 percent of the flavored liquids contained nicotine - a highly addictive substance that can impair normal brain development, as well as result in long-term cardiovascular impairment and poor lung health", Collins said. "We are certainly hoping that [Trump] will listen to the public-health and medical organizations".
"If you don't give it to them, it is going to come here illegally", he said from the White House. "They could be selling something on a street corner that could be awful ... they are going to have a flavor that is poison". Seeing a new generation of Americans become addicted to nicotine is not an acceptable tradeoff for declining smoking rates among adults, officials have said, and mysterious deaths linked to vaping have added a sense of urgency. "This is [a] kid product and we have to put the kids first". Trump did not take sides on Friday, but led an animated discussion on vaping for more than an hour, peppering those in attendance with questions and engaging in sometimes-heated exchanges. "That's the one problem I can't seem to forget". "But we know children as young as 8 and 9 are Juuling and vaping".
"It's the flavors that are drawing the kids in. We have to get the flavors off the market". "Bans don't work", he says. "They thought it was a candy-type product". A 2019 report from the American Cancer Society Action Network concluded that 51 of 88 age-of-sale bills introduced this year benefitted tobacco-industry interests.
He said the administration would announce its plan "very soon".