The Florida State Hispanic Chamber has a long history of advocating for legislation and regulations critical to the continuation and sustainability of Florida's Hispanic business community across the state and improving the quality of life of every Hispanic in Florida.
When we see something wrong, we work to right that wrong to ensure positive outcomes for Hispanic- owned businesses and the Hispanic consumers they serve.
According to its website, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is "responsible for protecting the public health." Unfortunately for His- panic businesses and consumers, the FDA is not protecting the public health when it comes regulating il- licit disposable e-cigarettes in youth-enticing flavors.
While youth usage of e-cigarettes has gone down, youth usage of disposable e-cigarettes in youth-enticing flavors have gone up. The Campaign for Tobacco Free-Kids has said "Disposable e-cigarettes have surged in popularity among kids." According to New Yorker Magazine, "The Vaping Industry Has Gone Rogue... Mysterious upstarts sell banned flavors shipped in from China. Counterfeits are everywhere."
These products are able to be exported from China and sold on store shelves across our country due a loophole in FDA guidance and FDA's inaction to close that loophole. Closing the loophole would provide clarity for Hispanic business owners and their consumers to know what e-cigarettes have gone through the proper regulatory channels and allows law enforcement to remove illicit products off store shelves. I believe it is important for regulated e-cigarettes to provide adult smokers with an off-ramp from traditional cigarettes if they are unable to quit nicotine.
We believe that every adult consumer should have the right to purchase legal and responsibly marketed products. But it is clear these products are marketed by manufacturers based in China with youth-enticing flavors and packaging like SpongeBob Square- Pants and The Simpsons to attract young people. On websites like made-in-china.com, 400,000+ disposable e-cigarettes are available for sale with some looking like sippy cups in flavors such as mango peach ice.
As we have seen with other counterfeit and illicit products, there have been reports of illicit disposable e-cigarettes to be laced with dangerous drugs and even fentanyl. In testimony in front of Congress, FDA Commissioner Robert Califf stated "it's of great concern to me that fentanyl may be showing up now in vaping products."
It is safe to say the FDA has failed to publicly communicate in a transparent manner which of these disposable e-cigarettes in kid-friendly flavors have gone through the proper channels (if at all) and therefore should be allowed on the marketplace. I was pleased to see Florida's own Congresswoman Cherfilus-McCormick introduced H.R. 901 to force the FDA to take action on this issue.
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