The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has authorized the first menthol-flavored electronic cigarettes for adult smokers. The approval includes four menthol e-cigarettes from Njoy, a vaping brand recently acquired by tobacco giant Altria, known for Marlboro cigarettes.
The FDA’s decision bolsters the vaping industry’s claims that e-cigarettes can significantly reduce the harms of traditional smoking, responsible for 480,000 annual deaths in the U.S. due to cancer, lung disease, and heart disease. However, the move has sparked criticism from parent groups and anti-tobacco advocates, concerned about youth vaping.“This decision could mean we’ll never be able to close the Pandora’s box of the youth vaping epidemic,” said Meredith Berkman, co-founder of Parents Against Vaping E-cigarettes. Despite a decline in youth vaping, with about 10% of high schoolers reporting use last year, 90% of those who vaped used flavored products, including menthol.
The FDA emphasized that Njoy’s products, which come in both reusable and disposable forms, are neither safe nor “FDA approved” for non-smokers. The approval is part of a broader FDA effort to bring scientific scrutiny to the vaping market. Njoy’s market presence is small compared to Vuse and Juul, which control 60% of U.S. e-cigarette sales.“Based on our rigorous scientific review, the benefits to adult smokers from completely switching to a less harmful product were sufficient to outweigh the risks to youth,” stated Matthew Farrelly of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products.