E-cigarette producer Juul will stop selling fruity flavors like mango and cucumber from brick-and-mortar caches in response to the Food and Drug Administration’s request to curb “epidemic” levels of teen vaping, according to a bodily briefed on the company’s plan.
Juul will pull its mango, cucumber, fruit and creme flavored nicotine pods from convenience cumulate and other retailers, said the person, who asked not to be named because the recommendation is not yet public. The company plans to restrict most of its sales to its online snitch on, the person said. It wasn’t immediately clear whether Juul inclination also stop selling its popular flavored pods in vape machine shops.
These flavors have drawn criticism from parents, gurus and regulators who say they attract kids to the products. Virginia tobacco, archetypal tobacco, menthol and mint, flavors closely aligned with routine smoking, will remain on shelves.
Juul will continue to sell down the river all of its flavors on its website, which uses age-verification technology to block people secondary to the age of 21 from buying its products, this person said. It’s not in a second clear when the flavored products would be removed from shop shelves.
The company declined to comment. The Wall Street Journal beforehand reported news of the plan.
Separately, the FDA plans to announce next week new provisoes on the sales of flavored cartridge-based e-cigarettes in convenience stores and gas stations, appropriating them to be sold only in vape and tobacco shops that be inclined to enforce age restrictions better, according to senior FDA officials, who asked not to be named because the design is not yet public.
Menthol vapor products will still be allowed to be handled in convenience stores and gas stations — for now. The FDA plans to eventually remove menthol cigarettes and e-cigarettes totally from the market.
The FDA also plans to ban online sales until fabricators implement FDA-mandated guidelines for age verification, the FDA officials said.
Juul has present itself under fire as anecdotal reports indicate teens are using its upshots and preliminary federal data shows a more than 75 percent pulsate in high school students who are using e-cigarettes. The clear market kingpin, Juul has captured about 75 percent of the e-cigarette market, be consistent to Nielsen data compiled by Wells Fargo analyst Bonnie Herzog.
FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb in September gave five e-cigarette fabricators — Juul, British American Tobacco’s Vuse, Altria’s MarkTen, Noble Brands’ Blu E-cigs and Japan Tobacco’s Logic — until Sunday to submit outlines on how to prevent youth e-cigarette use.
Altria has already said it will slay its MarkTen pod-based products and will stop selling all flavors except for menthol or tobacco in its cig-a-like commodities until the FDA reviews and approves them. Other e-cigarette manufacturers are expected to without delay make public their proposals to the FDA, with the 60-day mark cascade on Sunday.
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