On May 5, 2026, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) made a troubling decision: It authorized the sale of fruit-flavored e-cigarettes, including mango and blueberry despite their clear appeal to kids and the well-established risk that flavors help drive initiation among kids and teens. This is a major departure from the agency’s previous approach which had limited authorization to tobacco and menthol flavors.

A Weak Substitution for Real Youth Protection

The FDA has pointed to so-called “device access restrictions” (DARs) as a safeguard against youth use. These are technological controls that request age identification through apps, accounts, and Bluetooth connected devices. In theory, they are meant to limit access. In practice, they are a weak substitute for proven public health policy.

As the Public Health Law Center argues in a formal Comment to the FDA, DARs, are not an appropriate public health solution to the risks flavored e-cigarettes pose to kids. They can be bypassed, manipulated, and shift responsibility away from industry and retailer focused regulations that are actually proven measures that reduce initiation. More importantly, DARs do nothing to change the basic fact that flavored e-cigarettes are appealing to kids. A youth-prevention strategy that still places mango and blueberry vapes back on store shelves is not a meaningful solution.

The FDA’s Justification Does Not Hold Up

FDA officials have framed these restrictions as an innovation in public health protections. Acting Director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products said the technology could help prevent youth use while expanding flavored options for adults who smoke and want to switch away from cigarettes. But that argument is not backed by strong evidence. There is not convincing proof that flavored e-cigarettes are necessary to help adults quit or fully switch from combustible cigarettes. In fact, more common than switching is the reality that many adult smokers become dual-users (smoking cigarettes and using e-cigarettes), which is increases health risks on several metrics.

If manufacturers believed they had evidence that flavored products function as cessation tools for addicted adult smokers, then they could seek approval through the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. They have not done that, as far as we know. Why? Likely because their products are designed to attract, addict, and sell more tobacco products. Instead, the agency is allowing flavored e-cigarettes to be marketed without the kind of evidence that would justify treating them as cessation products.

Proven Public Health Policies Already Exist

There are many other proven policies that prevent youth initiation and avoid exposing kids to the marketing of flavored e-cigarettes – including flavored tobacco sales prohibitions or limiting sales to adult-only, tobacco-only retailers. By contrast, DARs are an information-gathering device masquerading as a youth prevention. They give the industry a socially responsible gloss while doing little to stop youth from seeing, wanting or accessing flavored vapes. Moreover, privacy concerns with DARS remain real, especially when access to an addictive product is conditioned on surveillance, biometric check-ins, and data collection.

Our message is clear.  The FDA should focus on preventing initiation, not creating new pathways for flavored products to reach the market under the false promise of technological safeguards.

Willow Najjar Anderson, Senior Staff Attorney
May 20, 2026