# Exploiting loophole in USA flavour ban



## Hooked (21/2/20)

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...anies-exploit-loophole-flavored-vape-ban.html
20 Feb. 2020

"Exploiting a loophole in the Food and Drug Administration's recent ban on flavored vaping products, a rash of shadowy companies have popped up marketing disposable e-cigarettes with exotic, fruity flavors. 

These disposable e-cigarettes are sold under brands like Puff Bar, Stig and Fogg in flavors such as pink lemonade, blueberry ice and tropical mango — and the flavored vaping ban does not apply to them because they cannot be refilled, and are thrown away after the cartridge is empty. 

Appearing to skirt FDA regulations, such brands and cheaply available knock-offs manufactured in China often operate with unclear ownership and have no ties to formal trade associations. 

Among the most popular of these trendy disposable vapes is Puff Bar, a brand distributed by the shadowy company Cool Clouds Distribution Inc, which is headquartered in a shuttered storefront in Los Angeles' Skid Row. 'What's sketchy about this?' Cool Clouds COO Shahid Shaikh recently asked a Bloomberg reporter after clambering out of the seemingly vacant storefront under the half-open shutter.

The explosion of brightly colored, fruity flavored disposable vapes follows the FDA's February 6 ban on refillable nicotine e-cigarettes with any flavor except for tobacco and menthol.

The crackdown was intended to cut down on the epidemic of teenagers becoming hooked on nicotine vapes such as Juul. But it seems teens have been quick to switch to disposable vapes such as Puff Bar. 

'They are very accessible and seem to be the new buzzy product,' said Dr. Karen Wilson, a tobacco researcher and pediatrician at Mount Sinai´s medical school in New York. 

*The FDA confirmed that the flavor restriction don't apply to 'self-contained, disposable products,' but only to rechargeable ones that use pods or cartridges prefilled with a nicotine solution. [my highlights]
*
The agency's rationale: Reusable vaping devices are far and away the most popular with underage users, preferred by more than 60% of high schoolers who vape, according to survey data collected last year.

The FDA's top tobacco regulator said it can still go after any vaping product that appeals to teenagers.

'If we see a product that is targeted to kids, we will take action,' Mitch Zeller, who heads the agency's tobacco center, said in a statement.

Researchers who study e-cigarette trash around high schools say they have noticed a shift in what teens are vaping. Jeremiah Mock, of the University of California, San Francisco, has been finding discarded Puff Bars in local school parking lots over the last three months.

Puff Bar seemed to emerge from nowhere. Now, amid rising scrutiny, the CEO of Puff Bar distributor Cool Clouds says the company is halting sales to seek FDA approval.

Days after a Bloomberg reporter visited the company's Skid Row headquarters, CEO Umais Abubaker, who goes by Max Baker, told the publication that Cool Clouds had 'ceased all distribution' of Puff Bar products in the U.S.

The FDA began regulating vape products in 2016, and all new products introduced after that date have to file lengthy applications indicating how their products might help adult smokers, and whether they might attract kids.

It appears that Puff Bar never went through the FDA approval process for new vape products.

'Cool Clouds looks forward to reintroducing the Puffbar in the United States after taking necessary measures,' Abubaker said. 

Vape shop owners also say the market is changing.

Mike Chang, owner of Master Piece Smoke Shop in New York City, says most of his customers who buy disposables switched from Juul after the company pulled its mint, mango and dessert flavors last fall. The company took that voluntary step under pressure from multiple federal investigations and lawsuits from state and local authorities.

Reactions: Informative 2


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## Hooked (21/2/20)

Once again the media is blowing things out of proportion and showing their ignorance. "a rash of shadowy companies" ?? STIG and Fogg have been around for ages and they are hardly "shadowy"!

Puff Bar is new - and I wouldn't be surprised to find out that it's a front for Juul!

And as for looking through garbage to see what kids are vaping - how low can you go???

Reactions: Agree 3


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## Adephi (21/2/20)

Something doesn't sound right here.

Everybody is struggling to get stock from China due to corona virus (at least according to Jai Haze), but these devices produced in China can make their way to "teenagers"?

Reactions: Agree 1


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