FDA commissioner says e-cigarettes are an “epidemic” among teenagers and wants manufacturers to come up with a plan. Share on Pinterest Getty Images In a dramatic turn, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has denounced electronic cigarettes as an “epidemic” among teenagers. The agency has also warned five major manufacturers, including JUUL, Logic, and blu, of potential impending enforcement action.

“I use the word epidemic with great care,” FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb publicly stated this month. “E-cigs have become an almost ubiquitous — and dangerous — trend among teens. The disturbing and accelerating trajectory of use we’re seeing in youth, and the resulting path to addiction, must end.”

The FDA also issued warning letters to manufacturers of e-cigarettes requesting them to respond with “robust plans” for how they intend to address the widespread use of their products by minors. Gottlieb suggests that brands will likely have to revise their sales and marketing practices to ensure their products stop falling into the hands of teens.

E-cigarettes, vaporizers, and other noncombustible forms of tobacco consumption — referred to as electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) — have created a debate among members of the healthcare community. However, the potential benefits of ENDS as cessation devices has largely become overshadowed by the dangers they pose in initiating youth into tobacco use and addiction.



Use is on the rise Use of e-cigarettes among adolescents has skyrocketed in recent years, with some new data likely prompting the FDA into action. According to data published in the Washington Post, e-cigarette use among high school students jumped by 75 percent between 2017 and 2018.

That data, which hasn’t yet been formally released to the public, reportedly comes from the National Youth Tobacco Survey — data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

With increasing use among teens, scrutiny of electronic cigarettes has risen, especially for the fruity and candy flavorants that appeal to young children and teens. Flavors for e-cigarettes run the gamut from strawberry to vanilla ice cream. Flavoring in traditional cigarettes (excluding menthol) has been banned in the United States since 2009 for exactly this reason.



Effects on the brain Experts say that growing use of tobacco products is particularly troubling because of how nicotine interacts with a young person’s developing brain.

Francis Leslie, a professor of pharmacology at the University of California Irvine, has studied the effects of nicotine on adolescent brains through animal models for many years. She says e-cigarettes are a worrisome trend.

“Our animal data actually seems to track fairly well with human epidemiological data that shows that the adolescent brain is uniquely sensitive to the negative effects of nicotine, and we’ve been studying what those effects are and what the mechanisms are for a number of years,” Leslie told Healthline.

One of the main conclusions from Leslie and her fellow researchers is that nicotine use among adolescents can enhance the rewarding effects of other drugs, particularly cocaine.

“It produces profound long-term changes in brain and behavior,” she said.

Therefore, she applauds the FDA’s action.

