At a recent congressional hearing, Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Washington, expressed concern about the illegal Chinese-manufactured flavored, disposable vaping products widely available nationwide. He noted that many of these products are made in unregulated facilities and could be laced with fentanyl — threatening the health and well-being of children.
In response, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Robert Califf said it is of great concern that the highly lethal drug is now ending up in illegal, foreign-made vapes and that the United States needs an all-of-government approach to protect kids from this threat.
As a parent and grandparent, I couldn’t agree more.
It is not that the government has done nothing, but it needs to do more.
In 2020, the FDA removed flavored, cartridge-based e-cigarettes from store shelves. Unfortunately, it did not include the illegal, flavored, disposable vapes that appeal to minors. As a result, these products continue to be produced and aggressively marketed to children in flavors such as “rainbow cotton candy” to an alarmingly effective degree. In fact, according to the 2022 National Youth Tobacco Survey, more than 2.5 million American middle and high school students still vape, with more than eight in 10 using flavored e-cigarettes. Disposable e-cigarette usage among high schoolers has spiked 2,188% since 2019.
Policymakers cannot address the youth vaping epidemic without acknowledging the elephant in the room — China.
China is the world’s largest producer of illegal, flavored, disposable vape products. They are made in unregulated facilities, and we have no idea what is actually in them. There could be harmful chemicals and contaminants, sky-high levels of nicotine, or, even worse, fentanyl.
In its 2021 World Drug Report, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime found that “the main source of illicitly manufactured fentanyl is China.”
China knows that its flavored disposable vape pens are dangerous and potentially deadly. That’s why, in October 2022, the country imposed strict regulations on the products the vaping industry can produce and sell within the People’s Republic.
However, it did not make these regulations applicable to the products it produces and sells in the United States and elsewhere. Consequently, the U.S. remains largely clueless about what chemicals and toxins are in these products, along with what nicotine levels they contain.
The FDA has started taking steps in the right direction. It recently put several illegal, disposable, foreign-made disposable vapes on the importation red list, giving U.S. Customs and Border Protection the ability to seize these products at the border and all ports of entry into the country.
It’s a good start. The FDA and the Biden administration must partner with local and state enforcement agencies to stop illegal disposable vapes from coming in and remove them from the shelves before they end up in kids’ backpacks.
Parents, teachers and — most important — our kids are counting on it.
Mary Bono is a former U.S. congresswoman and serves as chairwoman of Communities United for Smart Policy/InsideSources