IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 12, 2018
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Statement: Flavored E-Cigarette Ban Could Lead to Worse Outcomes
Eliminating Options Could Increase Use of Traditional Cigarettes
Washington, D.C. — Independent Women’s Forum (IWF) Director of the Center for Progress and Innovation Julie Gunlock released the following statement today in response to the Food and Drug Administration's announcement that it may consider banning flavored e-cigarettes:
"E-cigarettes shouldn’t be sold to minors. That is the law and the law should be enforced. Those vendors who violate the law ought to be held accountable.
"Yet the Federal Drug Administration should be cautious in considering an all out ban on e-cigarettes, since the elimination of this option could lead to more people—including more teenagers—using or returning to traditional, combustible cigarettes, which are far more harmful that e-cigarettes.
"Since 1997, rates of smoking among teens have fallen dramatically from 24.6 percent to just 5.5 percent in 2015. Just since 2010, the rate of smoking combustible cigarettes has been cut nearly in half.
"Of course we all wish that teenagers would just abstain entirely from bad behaviors, but we know that not all teenagers do make perfect choices. We don’t want to eliminate their least-bad options and leave them to make even worse choices that could lead to life-long addictions."
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