Flavored e-cigarette sales are booming despite federal crackdown

Efforts to restrict e-cigarette flavors favored by teens whitethorn person fallen level arsenic caller brands deed the market, according to a caller report.

Fruit, candy, spice and dessert-flavored e-cigarettes that person agelong been fashionable among underage smokers person proliferated successful caller years, according to data analyzed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the CDC Foundation and the Truth Initiative.

Flavored e-cigarettes represented 41.3% of U.S. retail-store e-cigarette portion income successful December 2022, up from 29.2% successful January 2020, the organizations found. Overall e-cigarette income successful the U.S. roseate astir 47% successful the period. 

The spike successful income comes contempt a national crackdown that placed much restrictions connected the flavors and selling for baccy products.

"The melodramatic spikes successful younker e-cigarette usage backmost successful 2017 and 2018, chiefly driven by JUUL, showed america however rapidly e-cigarette income and usage patterns tin change," said Deirdre Lawrence Kittner, manager of the CDC's Office connected Smoking and Health. "Retail income information are cardinal to providing real-time accusation connected the rapidly changing e-cigarette landscape, which is indispensable to reducing younker baccy use."

Citing the entreaty of flavored e-cigarettes to children, the FDA announced successful January 2020 that it would prohibit income of saccharine and fruit-flavored e-cigarette prefilled pods, which led to the demise of large brands similar Juul and Vuse.

During January 2020 to December 2022, portion shares of prefilled cartridges decreased from 75.2% to 48.0%.

However, the spirit limitations didn't impact disposable cigarettes, which astatine the extremity of 2019 lone represented 15% of e-cigarette portion income successful U.S. retail stores, according to the data. From January 2022 to December 2022, disposable e-cigarette portion stock accrued from 24.7% to 51.8% of full portion sales.

They present correspond much than fractional the U.S. e-cigarette market.

Nicotine is highly addictive and tin harm the teen brain, which continues to make done astir property 25, according to the CDC. Moreover, the bureau recovered that astir fashionable brands of disposable e-cigarettes connected the marketplace — Puff Bar, Elf Bar, and Breeze Smoke — aren't FDA-approved and are illegal. The FDA has lone authorized disposable e-cigarette marque NJOY Daily, which comes successful 2 baccy flavors.

Last year, the FDA ordered Elf Bar and Breeze Smoke disconnected the U.S. market, according to the CDC report.

"The baccy manufacture is good alert that flavors entreaty to and pull kids, and that young radical are uniquely susceptible to nicotine addiction," said Robin Koval, CEO and president of the Truth Initiative. "While we are encouraged by FDA's caller actions to curb unlawful selling of flavored e-cigarettes, we each indispensable enactment with adjacent greater urgency to support our nation's younker from each flavored e-cigarettes, including disposables."