With e-cigarette sales booming, the Supreme Court will decide whether the FDA unlawfully blocked approval of more than a million new flavored nicotine products.

Summary

The Supreme Court is reviewing whether the FDA unlawfully blocked over a million kid-friendly flavored vape products, which critics say fuel youth nicotine addiction.

Despite FDA bans, flavors like fruit and candy dominate illicit vape sales, with 1.6 million minors using such products.

Vape companies argue flavored e-liquids help adult smokers quit, but the FDA counters that their evidence is insufficient to outweigh youth addiction risks.

A lower court sided with the companies, and the Supreme Court’s ruling, expected by June 2025, could reshape vaping regulations.

  • ArtemisimetrAEnglish
    21·
    7 hours ago

    The entire thing is pretty nasty. 0mg nicotine liquid still turns into weird aerosols and the coils still corrode, releasing harmful metal particles into said aerosol.

    • Nougat@fedia.io
      72·
      7 hours ago

      None of that is true.

      0mg nicotine liquid still turns into weird aerosols …

      Propylene glycol and vegetable glycerin don’t change into anything else when slightly warmed and vaporized. PG and VG are what makes liquid-based fog machines work.

      … the coils still corrode, releasing harmful metal particles into said aerosol.

      No they do not. What happens is that the kanthal wire and cotton wick will become clogged with leftover fluid, and then you change the coil. The only time anyone has gotten any metal to leach from a vape coil was by firing it at incredibly high power for a very long time. Doing that and then inhaling the resulting substance would be impossible. It would be far too hot and you would cough it out immediately.

      Now, I’m not saying that vaping is harmless, but it’s definitely less harmful than inhaling tobacco smoke.

      • ArtemisimetrAEnglish
        31·
        4 hours ago

        So I used to work in the industry, and everything you mentioned was the rhetoric used by people who only ever did the most basic surface level investigation. Now I’m not trying to say I don’t think you’ve done any research at all or anything, but I am suggesting you look further into the situation. Technically calling it “vapor” is very misleading, and now, when most vapes are disposable with no replaceable parts, and the liquid being held entirely in a wicking material rather than a tank or pod (which have their own issues, plastics being exposed to high heat, etc.), the “just replace the coil” line of operation doesn’t apply. And even when it did, most people who came to the shop I worked at would push their coils WAY past the point of safety. The last point, though, still generally holds true, IN THE RIGHT CIRCUMSTANCES. Circumstances which most casual users don’t bother maintaining. If you’re a heavy smoker, vaping is generally less harmful, and that’s about the only way that rhetoric checks out.