Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr has called on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to take action to combat children’s access to e-cigarette products in Georgia’s communities. The actions include providing additional clarification of the sale of disposable e-cigarettes in kid-friendly flavors and strengthening enforcement efforts regarding the sale of unregulated e-cigarettes from foreign markets.
“Every day that the FDA does not take further action, we risk the health and safety of our children who will get their hands on these illegal and addictive products,” said Carr. “Foreign markets, most notably China, are flooding our state with unregulated e-cigarettes at an alarming rate, and it is past time our federal government take additional steps to address this issue. With child-friendly flavors and high doses of nicotine, these disposal e-cigarettes are uniquely positioned to devastate our kids, and we must do all we can to protect them.”
Carr made his request in a letter to FDA Commissioner Robert Califf, during which he noted that China shipped 700 million harmful e-cigarettes to the United States last year alone.
While the FDA recently released an import alert and warning letters to brands of the most flavored disposable e-cigarettes, Carr notes, “The FDA’s recent warning specifically references Esco Bars but does not more broadly address certain other brands in the marketplace… Additionally, consumers are uncertain about which flavored disposable products have been authorized by federal authorities… This fog created by the FDA’s approach, combined with enforcement challenges at the state and local levels, has created a climate where bad actors may continue to exploit the system.”
