In April 2022, Congress voted to grant the FDA powers to restrict flavored disposable e-cigarettes, which are popular with children.
Almost a year later, the agency still hasn’t done so.
Now, just 800 feet from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) headquarters in the Washington, DC area, is a convenience store that sells dozens of flavors of Puff Bars and Hyde Bars — including watermelon gum and strawberry kiwi.
Located about 200 yards from the edge of FDA headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, the White Oak convenience store offers a variety of single-use flavored e-cigarettes including Puff Bars, Elf Bars and True Bars.
The FDA sent a warning letter to Puff Bar in October, but it’s not clear they haven’t exercised the same authority it used to ban flavored Juul beans from store shelves years ago.
The back and forth over flavored e-cigarettes has caused the FDA to catch up as manufacturers find new workarounds to avoid having their product withdrawn.
Just 250 years from FDA headquarters in the Washington, DC area is a convenience store that sells dozens of flavors of Puff and Hyde bars – including watermelon gum and strawberry kiwi
Store offers a variety of flavored disposable e-cigarettes including Puff Bars, Elf Bars, and True Bars
The Food and Drug Administration hasn’t restricted flavored e-cigarettes, though they’ve had legal authority since April 2022.
In early 2020, under President Trump, the FDA banned flavored vape cartridges like Juul pods, greatly angering young vape smokers everywhere. The move came after a viral “popcorn lung” scare that some attributed to vaping.
This ban did not ban the sale of disposable e-cigarettes, leading to popular flavored vapes like the Elf Bar and Puff Bar, which children and young adults then turned to.
Puff Bar rose in popularity and profits, reaching more than $170 million in sales in 2020
In July 2020, the FDA ordered Puff Bar off the market, saying it hadn’t received the approval it needed to be sold because tobacco products that appeared after 2016 had to be approved by the FDA before they could be sold.
But in 2021, Puff Bar found a workaround and was back on the market. It developed a new synthetic nicotine formula that put it out of the reach of FDA tobacco regulators. Other products followed Puff Bar’s example.
In April 2022, Congress voted bipartisanly to close the loophole and give the FDA the power to regulate synthetic nicotine.
Meanwhile, teenage e-cigarette use has declined from an all-time high, but use of disposable vaping products has increased nearly 2,000 percent since 2019, according to CDC’s National Youth Tobacco Study.
More single-use flavored vapes are pictured behind the counter
The White Oak grocery store is located about 200 meters from the edge of FDA headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland
In 2022, 14.1 percent of high school students and 3.3 percent of middle school students reported using e-cigarettes regularly — approximately 2.55 million children. Flavored e-cigarettes still dominate the market among children – more than half of young e-cigarette users report using the disposable cigarette.
According to the CDC, Puff Bar was the brand of choice for nearly a third of vape users in junior high and high school.
“These numbers confirm that the e-cigarette epidemic is far from over in our country,” said Linda Neff, director of epidemiology at the CDC’s Office of Smoking and Health, according to NBC News. “Our work is far from done.
“Even more worrying is the frequency of use,” she added. “Of those who currently use e-cigarettes, more than 1 in 4 use them daily.”
Almost half of high school teens reported vaping every day.
Meanwhile, a recent study found that the nicotine content of certain disposable items is sometimes mislabeled, showing levels that are sometimes 1.5 times higher than the label.
A single disposable device can pack the nicotine of an entire pack of cigarettes. The Mojo brand states that their product is “equivalent to approximately 20 cigarettes.”
As of July 13, 2022, tobacco products containing synthetic nicotine are said to have an FDA marketing order for sale, but many such products are still on the market.
An FDA spokesman noted that the agency issued a warning letter to Puff Bar in October for selling and receiving its products in the US without a marketing approval, and requested a response within 15 days. But as the company notes on its website, the products are still fully on the market.
“If violations are not promptly corrected, the manufacturer risks regulatory action such as a civil fine, product seizure, and/or injunction,” the FDA said at the time.
“No, puff bars are not prohibited. No, the purchase is not illegal. No, they’re not hiring — and no, they’re not gone,” Puff Bar writes on its website.
The company sells dozens of kid-friendly flavors on its website — banana ice cream, sour apple, grated lemon.
The FDA also said it has taken action against the Hyde brand, issuing denial-of-marketing orders for 32 Hyde e-cigarettes. But flavors like strawberry guava ice cream and mango are still listed on Hyde’s website.
“The FDA remains vigilant in monitoring the market, both reviewing applications submitted to market e-cigarette products and using our compliance and enforcement resources to remove illegal products, including single-use items, from the market ‘ said a spokesman.