This week the Food and Drug Administration announced a plan aimed at reducing the use of e-cigarettes by teens. The FDA wants e-cigarettes sold only in age-restricted, in-person locations and also calls for better age verification for online sales.
Dr. Stephen Meister, the president of the Maine Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, says the proposals are a good start.
"I wish it would go just a little bit further, and that they would ban sales of this product through the internet,” he says.
In a written statement, FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb says that the proposals seek to balance the needs of adults who transition to e-cigarettes as they try to quit smoking with the imperative to prevent teens from becoming addicted to nicotine.
A recent government study found that from 2017 to 2018, high school students' use of e-cigarettes increased 78 percent.
"For children, we need to put up barriers, and we need to raise the price,” Meiser says. “They are price sensitive."
