The Food and Drug Administration is seeking data on the role that flavors, including menthol, in tobacco products play in the initiation, use, and cessation of tobacco products, with an emphasis on how flavoring impacts young people.
“In the spirit of our commitment to preventing kids from using tobacco, we are taking a closer look at flavors in tobacco products to better understand their level of impact on youth initiation,” FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, MD, said in statement. It is important “that we also explore how flavors, under a properly regulated framework that protects youth, may also be helping some currently addicted adult cigarette smokers switch to certain noncombustible forms of tobacco products.”
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“Youth consistently report product flavoring as a leading reason for using tobacco products,” Dr. Gottlieb noted. “In fact, there is evidence indicating that youth tobacco users who reported their first tobacco was flavored had a higher prevalence of current tobacco product use, compared to youth whose product was not flavored.”