Promising to tackle the growing use of electronic cigarettes by underage teenagers, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced April 24 a four-stage enforcement and inquiry effort to better understand the issue and crack down on the illegal sale of the devices to minors. FDA officials dubbed it the new Youth Tobacco Prevention Plan.
The action was swift, springing off FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb’s comments before an appropriations subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives just days earlier. “We are going to take some vigorous enforcement steps to try to [curb] what we see is inappropriate use by youth,” Gottlieb said, declining at the time to elaborate on when the FDA would take action. Within a week, the FDA announced its new four-step plan.