Friday, March 29, 2024

The United States: disposable e-cigarettes: emerging public health challenges

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Disposable e-cigarette is becoming more and more popular among e-cigarette users because of its relatively low price and convenience. Compared with the cartridge changing package, the disposable e-cigarette does not need to be charged or replaced. It is very friendly for new users, and the price threshold of tens of yuan is far lower than the cartridge changing package. In foreign e-cigarette market, disposable e-cigarette has been popular for a long time.

However, it is precisely because of the convenience of disposable e-cigarettes that many young people pay attention to, which has also aroused the attention of relevant government departments. As the largest consumer market of e-cigarettes, the United States has recently realized the new problems brought by disposable e-cigarettes and described them as “emerging public health challenges”.

On March 6, 2021, an article published in the New England Journal of medicine with the title of “disposable e-cigarette use among young people in the United States – emerging public health challenges” pointed out that disposable e-cigarette is becoming increasingly popular among young people in the United States and has become a new problem in the field of public health.

According to the article, the increase in the number of young e-cigarette users is driven by a variety of factors, including advertising, attractive tastes and new devices with high nicotine content in cigarette cartridges, such as Juul.

According to the National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS), by 2020, 19.6% of high school students (3.02 million) and 4.7% of middle school students (550000) reported using e-cigarettes in the first 30 days, a decrease of 1.8 million compared with 2019.

Although the number of e-cigarettes has declined, the use of e-cigarettes among young people is still prominent, and the form of equipment is constantly changing, both of which pose challenges to public health.

Among the current middle school students who use any type of e-cigarettes, 3.0% of them report using disposable e-cigarettes in 2019, corresponding to 30000 students; 15.2% of them report using disposable e-cigarettes in 2020, corresponding to 80000 students.

Among all high school students, 0.7% and 5.1% reported using disposable e-cigarettes, respectively. By 2020, pre oiling cartridge changing e-cigarettes (POD) will still be the most commonly used equipment type (220000 junior high school students and 1.45 million senior high school students).

The types of e-cigarettes used by young people have changed, which is consistent with the continuous growth of retail data of disposable e-cigarettes sales growth. Therefore, it is very important to further solve the problem of e-cigarettes used by young people, including disposable products.

The food and Drug Administration (FDA) in january2020 focused on unauthorized, scented, bomb based electronic smoke devices and sent a warning letter to 10 companies in july2020 to stop selling or distributing scented disposable e-cigarettes and electronic liquid products that appeal to young people.

Finally, the paper points out that these data further verify the rapid growth trend of e-cigarettes, and relevant clinicians, public health practitioners and the general public also need to make corresponding changes according to these changes.

In order to prevent the popularity of disposable e-cigarettes among young people, the FDA recently issued warning letters to 10 e-cigarette companies, including cool clouds distribution Inc., which operates under the name puff bar, asking them to take aromatic disposable e-cigarettes off the shelves because these products have not obtained the approval required for pre marketing. The FDA will also launch a series of new initiatives to eliminate products that appeal to teenagers.

“The FDA will continue to focus on e-cigarette products, especially those that are most attractive and accessible to young people,” said Stephen M. Hahn, FDA director. We are concerned about the prevalence of these products among young people and hope to make clear to all tobacco manufacturers and retailers that FDA is closely following the market even during the current epidemic and will hold the company accountable. “

“Despite the suspension of on-site inspection activities such as retail compliance and e-cigarette store inspections due to the new crown pandemic, our enforcement of unauthorized e-cigarette products has continued,” added Mitch Zeller, director of FDA’s tobacco product center. “These warning letters are the result of ongoing Internet monitoring of violations of tobacco laws and regulations.”

With the statement of FDA and the research results of relevant agencies, the road of disposable e-cigarettes in the United States will not be smooth, especially PMTA, which is an insurmountable barrier for the vast majority of disposable e-cigarettes.



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