E-Cigarettes: Matching Risks With Regulations

Abstract

In 2019, e-cigarettes captured public attention as never before, with more than 2,600 cases of e-cigarette or vaping product use–associated lung injury (EVALI) and at least 57 U.S. deaths by early 2020. 1 King BA Jones CM Baldwin GT Briss PA The EVALI and youth vaping epidemics: implications for public health. N Engl J Med. 2020; 382: 689-691https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMp1916171 Crossref PubMed Scopus (97) Google Scholar Local and state governments responded with bans on flavored e-cigarette sales. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) later announced restrictions on sales of flavored e-cigarette cartridges. Yet these responses conflated the epidemic of youth e-cigarette use—largely attributed to flavors—with the EVALI outbreak driven primarily by the use of informal or illicit vaping products that contained vitamin E acetate and, often, tetrahydrocannabinol, marijuana's principal psychoactive chemical. 1 King BA Jones CM Baldwin GT Briss PA The EVALI and youth vaping epidemics: implications for public health. N Engl J Med. 2020; 382: 689-691https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMp1916171 Crossref PubMed Scopus (97) Google Scholar