WASHINGTON, D.C. – Late Tuesday, May 5th, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced the authorization of four new flavored e-cigarette products, including two non-tobacco, non-menthol flavors. When Congress gave FDA authority to regulate tobacco products in the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, it indicated that no new tobacco product should be authorized unless it is “appropriate for the protection of the public health,” but it is clear the risks of these flavored products do not meet this threshold.
Flavors have long been used by Big Tobacco to appeal to and addict young people to their deadly products. In fact, nearly all youth who have ever tried an e-cigarette or who currently report using e-cigarettes, report using a flavored product. FDA is granting these marketing orders only weeks after releasing data that showed an encouraging decline in youth usage of e-cigarettes going from 5.9% in 2024 to 5.2% in 2025.
“The Food and Drug Administration should be focused on building on progress made in reducing youth tobacco use, not authorizing new flavored products that risk addicting a new generation,” said Shane Jacobson, CEO of the American Cancer Society and the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network. “The scientific research has documented the substantial and real risks of flavors in tobacco products for initiation, and this decision undermines our nation’s best interests of protecting young people from addictive and harmful tobacco products and preventing future chronic disease and death.”
The FDA argues that the manufacturer of these fruit-flavored e-cigarettes – like mango and blueberry – has shown that the benefits for adults who smoke cigarettes and would like to quit outweigh the risks to youth who might start using them. However, there is no scientific consensus that flavors provide a benefit to adults who want to quit using tobacco products. In addition, the administration contradicts its own previous draft guidance released just this year by suggesting that the digital age-verification systems built into the devices will effectively prevent underage usage. In March 2026, FDA published draft guidance stating that device access restrictions (DAR) embedded into e-cigarettes may not be sufficient on their own to protect against youth use of certain products. ACS CAN believes that DAR are unlikely to provide sufficient protection against youth use of any tobacco product and do not mitigate the proven risk of flavors in products.
Tobacco is the leading cause of preventable death with more than 480,000 deaths per year in the United States. People who use tobacco products deserve barrier-free access to proven cessation medications and services.
“With one third of all cancer deaths a result of tobacco use, it is particularly troubling to see the administration authorize youth-appealing tobacco products to be sold especially as the lead federal office on tobacco prevention and cessation, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Office on Smoking and Health, was eliminated,” said Lisa Lacasse, president of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network. “This is a one-two punch: the rapid rollout of new products by an industry with a documented history of targeting youth and lying to the public about the health consequences of its products, combined with the dismantling of the fact-based federal public health infrastructure designed to counter those tactics.”
ACS CAN has joined over two dozen amicus briefs supporting FDA's marketing denial orders of flavored e-cigarette products in nearly 20 court cases across the nation, most notably in a case decided 9-0 by the Supreme Court upholding the marketing denials just over a year ago. ACS CAN urges the administration to swiftly reconsider this action authorizing flavored tobacco products and to put the health and safety of young people first.
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