Last September, the Trump administration had announced a plan to ban flavoured vaping products across the US. According to sources familiar with the plan, an announcement was to be made early November, and the ban was meant to apply to all flavours with the exception of tobacco and menthol flavours.
However, a couple of weeks later, comments by Trump had suggested a change in strategy. He mentioned raising the legal vaping age limit to 21, as a way to prevent teen vaping. “We’re going to be coming out with a very important position on vaping,” he said on Twitter. “We have to take care of our kids, most importantly, so we’re going to have an age limit of 21 or so, so we’ll be coming out with something next week very important on vaping.”
To this effect, in the last week of November public-health experts, vaping executives and lawmakers, were convened to the White House, in order to discuss the matter. When the Vapor Technology Association (VTA) raised the topic of increasing the legal age to purchase the vaping products, Trump said that his administration had already decided to do so. “Twenty-one we’re going to be doing,” he said.
Meanwhile, a number of States and localities have already raised the legal age limit. Yet an article on CNBC had pointed out that given the fact that the FDA does not have the authority to raise the smoking age, it was “unclear how the Trump administration could pursue such a policy.”
Trump expected to sign “Tobacco 21” bill into law
Subsequently, the House and Senate have now passed a provision which would set this age limit in place, and Trump is expected to sign it into law as part of the overall spending package. “This is a big win for public health,” said Senator Brian Schatz, Democrat of Hawaii, who had proposed the higher national age limit after it was implemented by his state. “Raising the minimum smoking and vaping age to 21 will protect our kids and save lives.”
Trump’s Vaping “Compromise” Puts Legal Tobacco Consumers Under The Age of 21 At Risk
