The Food and Drug Administration on May 6 authorized the first fruit-flavored electronic cigarettes for adult smokers, a sharp turn in federal policy that clears mango, blueberry and two menthol varieties for sale under new branding by Los Angeles-based Glas Inc.
The products, which Glas plans to sell as Gold, Sapphire, Classic Menthol and Fresh Menthol, must be unlocked through age verification on a cellphone using a government ID and can then be used only when connected by Bluetooth to the verified user's phone. The FDA said the devices are intended only for adults who want to quit or cut back on cigarettes, not for teenagers or nonsmokers.
For years, the agency had allowed only tobacco or menthol-flavored vaping products. Under President Joe Biden, it rejected more than a million marketing applications for candy- or fruit-flavored products, while during Donald Trump's first term the FDA put in place the first flavor restrictions on e-cigarettes and raised the legal purchase age for all tobacco products from 18 to 21. The new authorization comes as marty makary has largely kept vaping and broader tobacco policy from the front of the agency's agenda.
That makes the decision a notable break from the message health groups and parent organizations have pressed for years: that flavors help drive underage vaping in the U.S. The FDA said it will closely watch how Glas markets the products and can suspend or withdraw the authorization if the company fails to comply with federal requirements, if youth use rises notably, or if the products no longer appear to meet the public-health standard.
Teen vaping rates are at a 10-year low, but the agency's move still lands in a policy fight that has stretched from the first battery-powered vaping devices sold in the U.S. in 2007 to the present. The FDA's answer today is that these fruit-flavored products may stay on the market only if they remain, in practice, adult cessation tools rather than the next route back to youth nicotine use.
