FDA warns e-cig companies over products that look like toys and target children

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued warning letters to several e-cigarette companies on Wednesday for packaging their products to look like toys and appeal to children.

The FDA criticized the five relatively unknown companies — Wizman Limited, Shenzhen Fumot Technology, Shenzhen Quawins Technology, Ruthless Vapor and Moti Global — for selling e-cigarettes designed to look like items such as glow sticks, Nintendo Game Boys and walkie-talkies, or to imitate foods such as popsicles. 

The companies also have been selling e-cigarettes that feature characters from “The Simpsons,” “Family Guy,” “Squid Game,” “Rick and Morty,” “Minions,” and “Baby Bus,” several of which being shows marketed to children, according to the FDA.

“The designs of these products are an utterly flagrant attempt to target kids,” Brian King, director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products, said in a statement. “It’s a hard sell to suggest that adults using e-cigarettes with the goal of quitting smoking need a cartoon character emblazoned across the front of the product in order to do so successfully.”

However, the FDA’s warnings have had a limited impact in the past. Wizman previously received a warning letter in 2020 over its product that imitated the Nintendo Game Boy — one of the same products Wizman was chastised for again in Wednesday’s letter.