Lawmakers have slammed the federal agencies for allowing the products to remain on store shelves and letting a multibillion-dollar shadow industry flourish.
During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday, senators brought receipts in the form of illegal flavored vapes their staff bought from convenience stores, gas stations and vape shops.
Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) displayed an oversized photo taken of a shelf at a shop less than 1 mile from FDA headquarters.
“You have completely fallen down on the job,” Durbin told Brian King, the head of FDA’s tobacco division.
“You’re failing. You are failing within a mile of the headquarters … What’s serious about this is not only the failure of the attorneys, but the failure that is leading to the addiction of children,” Durbin said.
The FDA has only authorized the sale of 23 flavored vaping products, but thousands have been illegally imported from overseas—mostly from China.
“I simply do not understand how FDA and DOJ have permitted thousands of products to remain on store shelves when their manufacturers have not received authorization, or, in some cases, even filed an application,” Durbin said.
The FDA and DOJ said they have been taking action against companies selling illicit products and have banned a handful of companies for selling products that appeal to minors, but the sheer volume of applications is the source of the delays. In the meantime, companies continue flooding the market with new products.
King said his agency has received 27 million applications for vape-related products.
On the Republican side, senators appeared angrier that the devices were coming from China rather than attempts of “Big Tobacco” to hook young people onto e-cigarettes.
“You can’t sell them in China but you can sell them in the United States and essentially victimize and addict our children,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), brandishing two fruit-flavored vapes made in China he bought at a local gas station.
Cornyn blasted the “Kafka-esque” maze of regulations and litigations that the FDA forced on manufacturer Juul to get its products on the market, while illegal Chinese vapes make $3 billion a year directly selling to American citizens.
Cornyn said he planned to introduce legislation to address “an outrageous and unacceptable status quo.”
