The Food and Drug Administration authorized an L.A.-based company to sell mango and blueberry-flavored products, marking a 180-degree pivot from Biden-era policies.
White House spokesperson Kush Desai said in a statement to Fortune that the Biden administration cracked down on flavored vapes despite evidence that the products help adults quit smoking.
“The only factor guiding the Trump administration’s health policymaking is Gold Standard Science, and the FDA under Commissioner Makary’s trailblazing leadership will continue to make evidence-based decisions that rectify the Biden administration’s missteps and that are in the best interest of the American people,” said Desai in a statement.
Still, the FDA’s most recent action raised alarms with anti-smoking organizations. Kelsey Romeo-Stuppy, the managing attorney at Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), said the authorization fails Americans’ right to health.
“ASH is deeply disappointed that the FDA has approved these products,” Romeo-Stuppy said in a statement to Fortune. The “flavors induce people, many of them children and young adults, to use a product that may result in a lifetime of addiction and other harms.”
“The FDA has a responsibility to ensure that products meet a rigorous public health standard that considers both the potential benefit for adults who smoke and the risks to youth,” Crosby said. “With these products now authorized, the agency must closely monitor how they are marketed and used to confirm that they continue to meet that high bar—and take swift action if they don’t.”
