Underwood Presses FDA for Failing to Safeguard Children’s Wellness

WASHINGTON – Nowadays in an Appropriations subcommittee hearing, Representative Lauren Underwood (IL-14) strongly criticized the U.S. Meals and Drug Administration (FDA) for their failure to regulate e-cigarettes and respond to the nationwide youth vaping epidemic. The court-ordered deadline for FDA to finish reviewing all tobacco solution applications was September 2021, but there are nonetheless thousands of applications that FDA has not reviewed, such as the e-cigarette brands that are most preferred amongst higher college students. 

Underwood questioned FDA Commissioner Robert Califf at an Appropriations Agriculture, Rural Improvement, Meals and Drug Administration, and Associated Agencies Subcommittee hearing and pressed FDA to prioritize children’s overall health. 

 “FDA need to make this a major priority. We have an whole generation that we are losing in the fight against tobacco, and we have current regulations on the books that could quit it,” mentioned Underwood. “These solutions are addictive and they are hazardous, and FDA’s choice has permitted these solutions to sit on retailer shelves and stay accessible to young men and women in our communities. I am after once again calling on FDA to prioritize the overall health of kids and full all e-cigarette application critiques as quickly as probable.” 

Complete video of Underwood’s remarks can be found here.

FDA has nonetheless not reviewed applications of solutions that are most preferred with youngsters – such as applications from JUUL and Vuse, which created up much more than 40 % of the marketplace of e-cigarettes utilised by higher schoolers in the most current National Youth Tobacco Survey. Current information shows the higher expense of FDA’s inaction an estimated two.five million youth and young adults have began working with e-cigarettes for the very first time following the missed deadline, such as up to 1.two million teenagers. 

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