U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin is slamming the Food and Drug Administration over its recent decision to authorize Juul Labs‘ e-cigarette products, accusing the agency of prioritizing industry profits over public health and vowing to investigate the move.
In a strongly worded statement issued this week, Durbin, the Senate’s second-ranking Democrat and a longtime anti-nicotine zealot, said the FDA’s reversal of its 2022 market denial for JUUL amounted to a betrayal of America’s youth.
“JUUL ignited this epidemic by addicting millions of children, and lied about the harms of their vapes—resulting in being forced to pay states nearly $1 billion for misleading promotion,” Durbin said. “Despite this shameful history, FDA ignored JUUL’s disqualifying conduct, unleashing a wave of disease and addiction on America’s children.”
The FDA’s decision to allow JUUL products to remain on the U.S. market follows years of legal wrangling and a stay of the agency’s 2022 marketing denial order. In its latest move, the FDA said it had reevaluated scientific data provided by Juul Labs and would permit sales of its tobacco and menthol-flavored e-cigarettes.
Durbin, who lost his father to lung cancer as a teenager, has spent decades targeting the tobacco industry. He helped lead the charge to ban smoking on airplanes and has pushed for FDA oversight of tobacco and nicotine products. He was among the first lawmakers to accuse Juul of fueling a youth vaping epidemic with flavored products and slick marketing tactics.
“For years, I have sounded the alarm on the dangers of the youth vaping epidemic and pushed FDA to use its enforcement tools, follow the law, and regulate these e-cigarettes,” Durbin said. “It is clear that the Trump Administration does not care about our kids. Instead, they are giving the green light to Big Tobacco to continue lining their pockets by peddling poison.”
Durbin pledged to launch a formal investigation into what he described as “troubling circumstances” surrounding the FDA’s decision. He also called on FDA Commissioner Marty Makary to reverse course immediately.
“I call on FDA Commissioner Makary to immediately reverse this decision,” Durbin said, “and will be launching an investigation into the troubling circumstances that led to this decision.”
The Illinois senator has frequently criticized the FDA for missing court-ordered deadlines to review premarket tobacco product applications (PMTAs), failing to enforce federal law, and allowing unapproved vaping products to proliferate the U.S. market.
