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ASSOCIATED PRESS
In this April 11, 2018, file photo, an unidentified 15-year-old high school student uses a vaping device near the school’s campus in Cambridge, Mass.
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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is doing a lousy job of keeping nicotine out of the hands of kids.
No less than seven medical and public health groups have filed suit against the FDA for failing to hold start-up electronic cigarette makers like JUUL Labs to the same level of regulatory scrutiny as mainstream tobacco companies.
Meanwhile, it continues to deny millions of adult American smokers, who seek a safer alternative to cigarettes, access to Philip Morris International’s IQOS heat-not-burn technology (“E-cigs, smokeless tobacco, less nicotine can curb smoking,” Star-Advertiser, Island Voices, Aug. 10, 2017).
As this newspaper’s editorial correctly points out, the FDA must crack down on the high-nicotine, candy-flavored products marketed to kids to combat a spike in youth smoking (“Keep teens from nicotine vaping,” Star-Advertiser, Our View, Sept. 14).
At the same time, it needs to add the U.S. to the growing list of countries where IQOS is now available as a reduced-risk alternative to combustible tobacco.
Ted Pizzino
Manoa
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