The FDA on Tuesday authorized the sale of fruit-flavored electronic cigarettes for the first time, clearing four products from Los Angeles-based vaping company Glas Inc. for adult use in the U.S.
The authorized products — marketed under the names Gold, Sapphire, Classic Menthol, and Fresh Menthol — are e-liquid pods containing 50mg/ml of tobacco-derived nicotine, according to the FDA. Gold and Sapphire are mango and blueberry flavors, respectively, according to NBC News. Until Tuesday's action, every federally authorized vaping product had been either tobacco- or menthol-flavored.
The authorization, granted through the FDA's premarket tobacco product application pathway, brings the total number of federally authorized e-cigarettes in the U.S. to 45. The agency said the decision applies only to these four Glas products and does not extend to any other Glas offerings.
Central to the FDA's decision is Glas's digital age-verification system. According to the FDA, the company's digital age-verification technology is designed to keep the products out of the hands of minors. To activate the device, a user must submit a government-issued ID for age verification through a smartphone app, after which the e-cigarette operates only when paired via Bluetooth to that registered phone. Separation from the paired device renders the e-cigarette inoperable, and the app performs periodic biometric checks to verify the authorized user is present, the agency said.
"By helping to prevent youth use, device access restrictions are a potential game changer," said Bret Koplow, acting director of the FDA's Center for Tobacco Products, in a statement. The marketing orders also require Glas to target advertising to adults 21 and older and to report data on the effectiveness of its youth-prevention measures to the FDA.
The FDA said it may suspend or withdraw the authorization if youth use of the products increases or if the benefits no longer outweigh the risks.
Not everyone welcomed the news. Kathy Crosby, who leads communications at the anti-tobacco nonprofit Truth Initiative, warned that the authorization amounts to "a key test case" and stressed the importance of ongoing surveillance to ensure young people are not harmed, according to CNBC.
The move comes after months of pressure on the Trump administration from vaping industry groups. During the Biden years, federal regulators turned down over a million applications to sell candy- and fruit-flavored vaping products; that enforcement push has been linked to a decade-low decline in teen vaping rates, according to NBC News. Government data show that most American teenagers who vape reach for fruit- and candy-flavored products that lack federal authorization — devices that, while technically illegal, flood the market in inexpensive disposable form, largely sourced from China.
More than 25 million Americans still smoke combustible cigarettes, the FDA said. Cigarette smoking claims roughly 480,000 American lives annually, with cancer, cardiovascular disease, and lung disease among the leading causes of those deaths, according to NBC News.