Still, Sanders’ strident rhetoric was sure to both please many public health advocates and further infuriate corporate America.

Asked by a university student about how the “country should tackle” the prevalence of youth vaping, Sanders first thought the question was about the dropout rate, but quickly corrected course.

“The evidence seems to indicate that vaping is not so good for your health,” Sanders said. “So, when you have products that are not good for your health, I think you’ve got to tell that industry that they cannot produce a product which is making our kids sick.”

He mentioned flavoring commonly added to e-cigarettes and said to the student who asked him the question, “Do you know kids who are vaping? Are they getting stuck on it? What’s the story there?”

The exchange came days after the Trump administration this week rolled out a long-awaited ban on flavored vaping pods in a bid to curb teen vaping, but refrained from a more sweeping flavor ban first promised in September. Health officials cited the need to keep products on the market for adult smokers who are looking to quit.

Teen tobacco use had fallen steadily for two decades before e-cigarette use first turned the trend around in 2018. Flavor and sales crackdowns that started last year could not slow the trend: five million teens reported recent vaping in 2019.

Congressional Democrats and public health groups were quick to slam the administration for its slimmed-down plan and call for broader flavored tobacco bans.

The ongoing outbreak of vaping-linked lung disease that has killed 55 people and sickened more than 2,500 since this summer has largely been linked to a thickening agent used in marijuana vapes. But 13 percent of people with the illness have told the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that they have only used nicotine vapes.