FDA Juul Ban Bad for Public Health: CEI Comment

The Food and Drug Administration is on the verge of ordering Juul Labs Inc. to remove its e-cigarettes from the U.S. market, according to a report today by the Wall Street Journal. This is a terrible move for public health, since it removes a swath of lower risk products – Juul brand e-cigarettes – from the market, leaving smokers with fewer alternatives to a more harmful product – traditional cigarettes.

Statement by Michelle Minton, CEI Senior Fellow:

“The FDA’s plans to eliminate Juul will force hundreds of thousands of adult smokers back to combustible cigarettes. Worse, because FDA plans to reduce nicotine in combustible cigarettes while also banning safer alternative nicotine sources, like e-cigarettes, smokers will have to smoke more to get the same amount of nicotine, resulting in a massive increase—not decrease—in harm. Nicotine is why smokers smoke, but isn’t what kills them. This move by the Biden FDA amounts to wantonly negligent public health policy.”

Related report: Federal Government Misled Public on E-Cigarette Health Risk