By Nicholas Florko Nov. 16, 2022
ALEX HOGAN/STAT
WASHINGTON – The Food and Drug Administration is formally warning multiple companies they must stop selling vapes and other products marketed to young people, including two that STAT highlighted in recent reporting on the industry.
STAT reported in August that Wizman Limited, one of the companies FDA warned Wednesday, was selling a vape holder made to look like a Game Boy. STAT also reported Tuesday that “Family Guy”-themed vapes manufactured by Shenzhen Fumot Technology Co. were being sold just a few miles from the FDA’s campus. That company received its first warning from the FDA Wednesday.
“The designs of these products are an utterly flagrant attempt to target kids,” said Brian King, the director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products in a statement. “It’s a hard sell to suggest that adults using e-cigarettes with the goal of quitting smoking need a cartoon character emblazoned across the front of the product in order to do so successfully.”
It’s unclear, however, whether warnings will be enough to force these products off the market. Wizman, for example, already received a warning from the FDA in April 2020, and briefly stopped selling its product, but then quietly began selling it again.
Other companies receiving warnings today include Moti, a Chinese manufacturer of a sleek vape similar in design to Juul and Vuse, which advertises being sold in more than 100,000 retail stores worldwide, and Ruthless Vapor, a California-based company which manufacturers disposable vapes that look like bananas.
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