Menthol E-cigarette Sales Rise Following 2020 FDA Guidance.
Thursday, October 22, 2020
Posted by: Natalia Gromov
Diaz MC, Donovan EM, Schillo BA,
et al
Menthol E-cigarette
Sales Rise Following 2020 FDA Guidance.
Tobacco Control Published Online First: 23 September
2020. doi: 10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2020-056053
Objective: To
explore patterns in flavoured e-cigarette sales following Juul Labs’ 2019
removal of mint-flavoured products and the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA)
2020 e-cigarette flavour guidance which prohibits flavoured cartridge-based
sales, but allows for the sale of tobacco-flavoured and menthol-flavoured
cartridges, open-system and disposable e-cigarettes. Methods: We
examined Nielsen Retail Scanner data from September 2013 to March 2020.
Inflation-adjusted sales dollars for e-liquid-containing products were
classified into five flavour categories (fruit, menthol, mint, tobacco and
other). Results: Following
the Juul Labs 2019 and FDA 2020 actions, total e-cigarette sales declined; however,
menthol-flavoured e-cigarette sales dollars increased, while mint-flavoured
e-cigarette sales dollars decreased in both instances. Juul Labs’ removal of
mint-flavoured products was followed by a 59.4% increase in the market share of
menthol-flavoured e-cigarettes over 4 weeks. The FDA’s 2020 guidance was
followed by a 54.5% increase in the market share of menthol-flavoured
e-cigarettes over 4 weeks and a 82.8% increase over 8 weeks. Conclusions: Juul
Labs’ self-regulation and the current FDA flavour guidance were followed by a
shift towards menthol-flavoured e-cigarettes. Industry self-regulation and
current federal guidance appear insufficient in reversing the youth vaping
epidemic. E-cigarettes must be fully regulated as a tobacco product including the
removal of flavoured e-cigarettes, including menthol, from the market to reduce
youth e-cigarette use.
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