FDA takes action against E-Cigarette Companies Misleading Advertising due to Risk of Nicotine Exposures Among Young Children

Yesterday, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a press release along with 13 warning letters to manufacturers, distributors, and retailers for selling e-liquids used in e-cigarettes with labeling that is misleading to children and resemble children's juice boxes, candies and cookies. To make matters even worse, several of the companies were also cited for illegally selling these products to minors.

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No tobacco products should be marketed in a way that endangers kids – especially by using imagery that misleads them into thinking the products are things they’d eat or drink.

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In the report, the FDA released a series of images that demonstrate just how similar these products are in appearance to many well-known candy and fruit juices, which are marketed towards children.

After taking one glance at these pictures, it's easy to see how a child could mistake these e-cigarette products for the respectively similar candy or food product. I mean the packaging looks almost identical. For some of them I even had to look at it twice to be able to differentiate between the two products.

This comes just after the American Academy of Pediatrics released a study last month, in April 2018, titled E-Cigarette and Liquid Nicotine Exposures Among Young Children. This study investigated the characteristics and trends of liquid nicotine exposures in young children (less than 6 years old) and compared the incidence of exposures to before and after adoption of legislation requiring child-resistant liquid nicotine packaging.

The study showed that between January 1, 2012, to April 30, 2017, there were 8,269 liquid nicotine exposures among children less than 6 years old reported to United States Poison Control Centers. The median age of exposure was just 2 years old, while children less than 3 years old accounted for the majority of exposures [83.9% (n = 6940)].

One alarming statistic this study did highlight though was that the annual nicotine exposure rate per 100,000 children increased by 1,398.2% from 0.7 in 2012 to 10.4 in 2015. Interestingly enough, after federal child-resistant packaging laws went into effect, there was a significant decrease in the number of exposures, averaging 4.4 fewer exposures per state after implementation of the law.

Image Source

While pediatric exposures to liquid nicotine have decreased since January 2015, which may, in part, be attributable to laws requiring child-resistant packaging. I think this study does a great job at highlighting the effectiveness that legislation can have on protecting pediatric patients from the harms of pediatric exposures to liquid nicotine products.

I believe taking this legislation further to prevent e-cigarette companies from marketing their products to children and disguising them amongst other commonly recognized candies and food products will significantly help to reduce the incidence even further among accidental pediatric exposures.

Sources:

1. FDA, FTC take action against companies misleading kids with e-liquids that resemble children’s juice boxes, candies and cookies.
2. E-Cigarette and Liquid Nicotine Exposures Among Young Children.