The Means to Ending ENDS: Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems and America’s Youth

Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS) have risen in prominence amongst smokers and non-smokers as a way to inhale nicotine since their introduction to the United States in 2006. Often sold in a variety of mouth-watering flavors, ENDS are extremely enticing to both adolescents and adults. Though they are marketed as a safer alternative to combustible cigarettes, these devices have created a growing public health epidemic of nicotine addiction among adolescent users. Ultimately acknowledging the issue in 2020, the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) released guidelines to the nicotine industry and banned the sale of certain flavored ENDS. However, this flavor ban is not as extensive as other state and local laws, as it leaves open loopholes for the industry. Therefore, this paper proposes that the FDA, in its official rulemaking capacity, creates a regulation that prohibits the sale of all flavored ENDS (including menthol flavors) in all forms (including disposable and tank-systems)