The FDA recently approved Zyn as a harm reduction tool for quitting smoking, citing that the product “doesn’t contain harmful substances linked to cancer or other diseases” that are present in tobacco. The FDA approved the “marketing of 20 Zyn nicotine pouch products,” approving a wide range of flavored pouches, including “cinnamon, citrus, coffee, cool mint and menthol.”
While this is a victory for tobacco harm reduction, the FDA is still ignoring flavored e-cigarettes, one of the most effective means for quitting smoking. The FDA has authorized only 34 e-cigarettes for sale. Only menthol and tobacco-flavored vapes have FDA approval to be sold.
Nicotine pouches are a good option for adults looking to quit smoking. However, flavored e-cigarettes are still the best method for helping people snuff out cigarettes.
The FDA should be more lenient in approving sweet-flavored vapes for the following reasons: non-tobacco-flavored e-cigarettes are more effective at helping smokers quit, it will prevent people from having to resort to the black market, and youth vaping is on the decline.
The FDA’s hostility toward non-cigarette flavored vapes is a slap in the face to smokers. The only vapes that are legally accessible mimic the flavor of combustible e-cigarettes. Critics incorrectly believe that Crème Brûlée and peach-mango e-cigarettes are targeting children, but the flavors are crucial for getting adult smokers to quit.
Tootie-fruity e-cigs play a role in helping smokers quit by breaking the association between nicotine and tobacco. E-cigarettes that taste like cigarettes act as a trigger for smokers to indulge in the real thing. A survey by CoEHAR found that only 15 percent of adult vapers found tobacco-flavored devices to help them quit smoking.
In the absence of flavored e-cigarettes, many vapers will either go back to smoking or obtain their preferred vaping products from the black market. Eighty-seven percent of vapers have indicated they would continue to use nicotine even when their favorite flavor is restricted. A third of vapers would go back to smoking analog cigarettes. Combustible cigarettes are 95 percent more harmful than vapes and contain “450 times” more toxins than e-cigarettes.
Over a quarter of vapers have indicated that they would resort to the black market for their preferred e-cigarette flavor. By rejecting all of the non-menthol and tobacco-flavored devices, instead of helping smokers quit, the FDA is exposing them to the dangers of adulterated products.
Flavored vapes have been a source of controversy for a decade. Public health officials fear that sweet e-juice flavors will appeal to kids, getting a new generation hooked on nicotine. In December 2024, the FDA denied “Peachy Strawberry” and “Crème Brulee” flavored devices because “ fruit- and candy-flavored e-cigarettes are more attractive to children.” The concerns about youth vaping and flavored devices are exaggerated. A 2019 study by the CDC found that 80 percent of kids vape for reasons other than the flavors, ranging from “curiosity” to “peer pressure.”
Youth vaping has declined for the last six years and reached a 10-year low in 2024, resulting in a 70 percent decrease since its peak in 2019. Many believe the decline is due to various youth prevention initiatives, but teens no longer think it’s cool. In 2017, Matthew Farrelly of RTI International stated, “E-cigarettes may also be losing their novelty among teens, demonstrating that teens started losing interest in vaping years ago.
It might be safe to say that the teen vaping epidemic is over. Making the argument that flavors encourage youth nicotine consumption for not approving certain e-cigarette flavors is flimsy at best.
The FDA’s decision to approve flavored Zyn pouches is a win for anyone quitting tobacco. The next step would be for the FDA to approve flavored e-cigarettes for sale. Adults should have options when finding the smoking cessation method that works for them. Restricting cessation tools and pushing adults toward the black market is detrimental to public health. If the FDA wants to eliminate the No. 1 cause of preventable death in the United States, it needs to get on board with flavored e-cigarettes.
