• by Tanya Gazdik , June 9, 2024

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has rescinded a marketing ban on vaping products from Juul, although it has not yet decided whether the products will ultimately stay on the market.

“In 2022, the FDA issued a marketing ban on Juul products, including devices and tobacco and menthol-flavored pods,” according to CNN Business. “The marketing denial order was stayed weeks later as ‘scientific issues warranted additional review,’ but had not been rescinded. Juul appealed the decision and the products stayed on store shelves pending the appeal. Recission of the marketing ban ‘is not an authorization or a denial and does not indicate whether the applications are likely to be authorized or denied,' the FDA said Thursday.” 

The FDA says federal statutes bar it from disclosing additional information about pending applications.

“Juul became one of the highest-profile successes of the initial burst in e-cigarette use more than a decade ago,” according to NBC News. “That success was beset by concerns that e-cigarettes were introducing a new generation of people to nicotine addiction. Vaping reached a peak of approximately 28% among all high school students in 2019, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”

E-cigarettes and e-liquid pods heat and then vaporize nicotine salts. The user inhales vapor instead of smoke. 

“For years, the FDA has challenged the company's tactics, including making products that appeal to teenagers and promoting vaping as being safer than smoking cigarettes,” according to CNET. “There have also been concerns about potentially harmful chemicals contained in Juul's e-liquid pods. One such chemical is benzoic acid, a food additive and preservative that can be both environmental and health hazards in large amounts. At the time of the ban, the FDA didn't have enough toxicological evidence that the product marketing met the legal public health standard.”

The reversal is based on a "review of information provided by the applicant" as well as new case law stemming from court decisions involving marketing denial orders for e-cigarette products, the FDA said, according to ABC News.

The FDA has given 23 e-cigarette products, made by three companies, approval to be marketed to consumers.

“While Juul has since entered a period of financial retrenchment, sales of e-cigarettes and other alternative nicotine products have continued to grow,” according to NBC News. “Last year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported e-cigarette use had grown nearly 50% between January 2020 and December 2022. During that period, the agency said, Juul trailed only Vuse among e-cig brands.”

E-cigarette growth is now being surpassed by smokeless tobacco products.

“Philip Morris, which now owns nicotine pouch-maker Zyn, recently reported that its smokeless category increased 21% from a year ago and that it now accounts for nearly 40% of the firm’s total revenue,” Barron's reported.