WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Congresswoman Nita Lowey (D-NY17/Rockland-Westchester), Chair of the House Appropriations Committee, issued the following statement on the Trump administration’s long-overdue action to address the e-cigarette public health emergency:
“Today’s announcement of this Administration’s plan to pull flavored e-cigarettes off the market is too little, too late. The FDA slow-walked regulatory action and enforcement to mitigate this looming public health crisis despite calls to action from the health community and my questioning them numerous times in recent years. Now, a new generation of Americans – that otherwise wouldn’t be – is hooked on nicotine.
“The role of the FDA is to protect public health. While this announcement was a positive step, it should not have taken a public health crisis with one out of every four kids using e-cigarettes, at least six deaths, and hundreds of life-threatening vaping-related illnesses for the FDA to finally start doing its job.
“The agency must expeditiously finalize its new policy on flavored e-cigarette products. It must also enforce all related regulations with much greater urgency than it is enforcing current regulations on vaping devices. I urge this administration to definitively advise the public to stop using e-cigarettes.”
