“If anything would make me sleep less right now this is one of several issues,” Califf told a House panel Thursday. “It’s not as if people don’t see it coming in. Boxes full of vaping products were labeled as lanterns.”
During a House Appropriations hearing on the agency’s FY 2025 budget request, Califf said Congress can help the agency cut through red tape to make it easier to seize the products as soon as they arrive in U.S. shipping facilities.
Chinese regulators banned vaping flavors in 2022, Califf noted, so the devices are pouring into the U.S. But he explained that the agency is hampered by legal restrictions.
“We have to go by what’s on the label … it takes weeks to get that fixed and then there’s a timeframe by which if we don’t do something the product goes on through” to U.S. shops, he said.
FDA is facing bipartisan pressure to do more to stop Chinese vape products in kid-friendly flavors from entering the market. Despite the FDA issuing a ban on most fruit and mint-flavored e-cigarettes, products continue to flow into the U.S. and become available for purchase.
“FDA’s continued inability to clear the market of illicit tobacco products. I simply do not understand why FDA cannot – or will not – tackle this problem head on and get illicit products out of the marketplace,” said Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.), chairman of the appropriations subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development and FDA.
“This should be the Center for Tobacco Products’ number one focus, not dreaming up new rulemakings to further exacerbate black markets,” he added.
