Washington: US President Donald Trump’s administration announced that it would soon ban flavoured e-cigarette products following a spike in vaping-linked deaths.
The move could later be extended to an outright prohibition of vaping if adolescents migrate to tobacco flavors, seen as more legitimate products that help smokers quit their habit.
Addressing reporters at the White House, the president said that both he and First Lady Melania Trump were worried as parents of a teenage son about an outbreak of severe lung disease that has killed six people and sickened hundreds.
Trump was accompanied by Ned Sharpless, the acting head of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that regulates e-cigarettes and by Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, who responded to a question about the proposed timeline by saying his agency would issue rules in the coming weeks.
(Agencies)
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