Became a bigger issue in 2019. Andrew i think it was a combination of factors that really drove this to the front of the policy debate this year. One was just a year over year increases in the number of teens who are reporting ecigarette use. Thats been increasing for several years, but 2019, we saw another significant increase over last year. Another was interrelated, but sort of distinct issue that we saw, starting over the summer with vaping related illnesses that were beginning to emerge, that weve now seen thousands injured and dozens dead from this. Thcs related to illicit vaping, which is distinct from the problem of ecigarette use. But the urgency of those illnesses i think really prompted policymakers to want to respond more broadly to the vaping issues were dealing with in the u. S. Host and the Administration Starts the new year with an announcement about vaping and ecigarettes. Andrew, youre covering this story. What did they say . Andrew so, the Administration Says that in early february, products like juul, which are the most popular among young people, use nicotine philpott and cartridges filled pods and cartridges. Previously, juul had been available in flavors like mint, mango, fruit and otherwise. The companys already taken those products off the market a few months back because of public pressure. Anticipation of flavor restrictions. But products similar to juul, other things that arepod or cartridgebased, they will have to take their products off the market. The other type of ecigarettes available, there are these devices that have tanks that the users can refill them with liquid nicotine themselves. These tend to be more popular among adults. Theyre harder to conceal than products like juul, and the shops that sell the flavors for those will continue to operate as they currently have as long as they have strict age verification procedures in place, and as long as theyre not selling flavors obviously marketing to children. They wouldnt be able to sell things like flavors based on serial or Something Like that cereal or Something Like that. So, those shops will continue to operate as they normally have. Host President Trump was at maralago over the holiday break, and on new years eve, he previewed the announcement, speaking with reporters. Lets take a listen. Pres. Trump yeah, the vaping is coming out. Were going to be announcing it very shortly. Some know about what were doing. We have to protect our families. At the same time, its a big industry. We want to protect the industry. Were taking off certain flavors for a period of time. Were going to protect our families, our children, and our industry. Hopefully, if things are safe, they will be going quickly back onto the market. They will be checked. People have died from this. Theyve died from vaping. We think we understand why, but were doing a very exhaustive examination and hopefully everything will be back to the market very shortly. Look, vaping can be good from the standpoint you look at ecigarettes, he stops marking you stop smoking. Thats a big advantage. Well be working to get them on the market quickly, but we have to protect the children. We have to protect the families. Same time, we have a very big industry. Were going to take care of the industry. Host were going to show you some of President Trumps public deliberations on the issue later. Right now, part of a hearing from july. Well hear from High School Students and their parents. Two of the students say a representative of the ecigarette company juul gave a presentation to their ninth grade classroom and said that ecigarettes are totally safe. I im meredith berkman, and represent parents against vaping ecigarettes, a Grassroots Group founded over a year ago by three concerned moms. We already have groups of aggravated parents across the country, from california to new york, and places in between. We have people with us today from texas, from georgia, virginia, new york, new jersey, etc. My cofounders are behind me with members of our families. Between us, we have nine kids between ages seven and 19. Along with our friend mimi, also here, we created paved in response to the pave to the juuling epidemic that has seemed to come out of nowhere. Its one of the most Serious Public Health crises of country has faced in decades. Our goal is to give voice to this 3. 6 million teens who are ing, most of them andrew most of them juuling. This most recent figure is outdated. There was a 78 percent rise in the use of these products by High School Students, and 48 rise in use by middle school students. And experts believe the new figures will likely be much higher because nothing has happened to have them go down. We hear from desperate parents every day, who contact us seeking resources, information, and help further juul dependent, nicotine addicted kids, but there is not yet treatment for this addiction. I will share very briefly just one or two stories, because theyre heartbreaking and they come from every state represented here on the panel, and probably every state of people in this room. From massachusetts, our pave advocate speaking about her son, cade, a hockey player, described he developed a cough and was not able to breathe while skating. He had extreme bouts of anger, a very common thing people report. The home environment was toxic. It turns out that kate has restrictive lung disease. He needs inhalers and oral steroids. Day,been smoking a pod a the equivalent of a pack of cigarettes a day for three years. Kelly from North Carolina is here with her son, luca, whose addiction was so severe, he spent 39 days as an inpatient in a Rehab Facility in california. We began living with a stranger. Are straight a students grades dropped to have to f. I were 14yearold had a Substance Abuse problem and that substance was juul. And now i want to share a personal story, a story about how juul went after our kids and their friends by coming into their School Without the knowledge of the school or of us concerned parents, juul sent a representative to talk to our kids about its product under the guise of education. My then 3, 2017, 15yearold friend caleb, whos here, told me there had been an antiaddiction top. The teachers left the room and the man gave a confusing talk about juul, telling them it was not for kids but for adults. It was much safer for cigarettes. The fda would approve it any day. When he was done, caleb and his friend philip went up to talk to him. He repeated juul was for adults, not kids. Then he took out this slick looking juul, showed the boys how it worked, and called it the iphone of vapes. And thats when we moms decided to fight back. We discovered a few months before that ever kids were juul ing at home, right under our noses, which is also very common. It doesnt mean youre a bad parent. Its self by design. We knew that nicotine was harmful to kids brains. And as we researched and put pieces together, we learned that seemeddeceptive behavior to be part of this marketing strategy. In california, a retired superintendent was offering schools in massachusetts money that they would implement the that theycurriculum were offering on juuls behalf. We came upon the tobacco prevention toolkit with an disclaimer that we immediately realized was a reference to juul , taking information it shouldnt have. None of this is surprising. As i said, juul is self by design. Juul says it no longer restocks resale orders of flavors that research has proven are harming the kids. Yet just the other day, in a one block radius in two different stores, i was able to buy these mental im sorry, these mango pods that juul says are no longer on the market, but they are still online. And thats the problem. If juul really wants to slow the youth epidemic and keep young kids from starting, they will remove all flavors from the market, including mental and mint menthol and mint, the most popular kids flavors, and stop spending millions on lobbyists to oppose sensible legislation that pave parents and our Coalition Partners are fighting for all over this country, to restrict youth access to juul and other products. We hope todays hearing motivates members of congress on both sides. We all care about kids to hold juul accountable, not only for the epidemic for its predatory actresses and causing harm predatory practices and causing harm. Its not a human issue, but a moral one. We face an entire generation addicted to nicotine, who are human guinea pigs. Thank you, miss berkman. First of all, after you discovered that a presenter representing juul gave a closed assembly at your childrens school, we researched the issue and formed an Advocacy Group to inform parents around the country about the dangers of ecigarette use. Thank you for your continued advocacy. As a parent of three Young Children myself, including a teenager, i was shocked to hear juul had access to children without the presence of teachers or administrators, and without parental permission. Juul continues to partner with youth organizations across the country, so its important to understand what outreach looks like on their part. Misses berkman and misses furman, id like to ask a couple of questions from your sons, if thats ok. Yes. Philip and caleb, can you come to the table for a couple minutes . Id like to first address caleb. Caleb, what grades were you and philip in in the year of the juul presentation . Ninth grade. Can you speak directly into the microphone . Ninth grade. Thank you. What we are told before the presentation began . We were told we were having a Mental Health addiction seminar that we have 3 00 severe three times a year. Its a safe space for kids to talk. Did most of your classmates believe juul was safe prior to the presentation . I think many kids were already juuling and had their doubts. But i think a lot of kids still thought it was possibly dangerous. Did the presenter ever mention his connection to juul, and we are teachers in the room when he spoke . He did mention the connection to juul and my teacher was not in the room. Did the presenter say juul was safe . Yes. Did the presenter call juul totally safe more than once . Yes. What impacted those totally safe comments have on your classmates, some of whom may have already started vaping . For my classmates who are already vaping, it was a sigh of relief because now they could vaped without any concern. Where there kids who had never been juuling that were more likely to try after hearing it was totally safe . I cant say for sure but i believe that after this meeting, kids were more inclined to vape because now they thought it was just a flavor device that didnt have any harmful substances in it. You and philip approached the presenter when the assembly concluded. What motivated you to even approach them in the first place . I believe the presenter was sending mixed messages by saying juul is totally safe, and following up every totally safe statement with, but we dont want u. S. Customers. I saw a mixed message being sent and i believe the presenter was playing on the rebellious side of teens, who when they are told not to do something, they are more likely to do it. Philip, let me ask you a couple questions. What was your experience speaking to the presenter . So, we went up and talk to him and caleb asked a question about what can you do if your friend is addicted to nicotine . Philip, were you addicted to juul at the time of this presentation . I was. Was caleb referring to you . He was. How did the presenter answer . Since caleb was not specific on what kind of nicotine he was addicted to, whether it was in ecigarette or cigarettes, the speaker thought he was talking about cigarettes. He said he should mention juul to his friend because thats a safer alternative than smoking cigarettes and it would be better for the kid to use. So let me get this straight, he wanted you to switch from a combustible cigarette to juul . Yes. Did he demonstrate the product . He didnt use it but he did show it to us. Ok, this is very disturbing behavior, to say the least. A person connected to juul pulled out a juul device to demonstrate its safety to teenagers, and then lied about the product being totally safe. Did he say anything else about whether the government had approved juul . He mentioned that the fda was about to come out and say that juul was 99 safer than cigarettes, and that would happen very soon, and that it was in fda approval while the talk was going on. Thank you, caleb and philip. Let me ask dorian, phillips mother, to say a couple words here. Dorian, thank you for coming today. Your son philip just stated he was addicted to juul. How did his addiction impact your family . It was difficult. At first, we didnt understand what was going on. He was interested in so many things, from surfing to cooking to his little sister. And i started to find these flash drives and these green plastic caps in his pockets. And i didnt really know what it was at first. So he kept saying they belonged to a friend. We have fights about it. I figured out what it was because i googled the name on the side. It was difficult. He changed overnight. He started spending a lot of time in his room in the dark. He became moody. We had a very contentious relationship. I became very suspicious, obviously. And i think he didnt really understand what was going on himself, and neither did we. Thank you, dorian. Let me now recognize wrecking member cloud for five minutes of questioning Ranking Member cloud for five minutes of questioning. Thank you, chairman. Miss berkman, im curious to the reaction. I assume you approached the school board, the principal. What was the reaction . Thate school had no idea the outside group had brought a juul representative into the school. They yes. And we believe the outside group was naive, definitely, but in good faith. Because when i called to ask about this presentation, the staffer who answered the phone said oh, you found the right person. I was researching antijuul education online, and i came across the name of a woman named julie anderson, who was listed then and no longer on the juul website as a youth prevention coordinator. Then she called and this woman says i have the perfect person, and sent allie. Ok, thank you. Doctor . Could you explain the difference, from a health perspective, between a traditional cigarette and in ecigarette . Is there one . Yeah, there are many differences. Traditional cigarettes consist of a preparation of tobacco leaves, which when burned, create smoke and contains roughly 7000 different chemicals, most of which are not good for the human body. Ecigarettes contain far fewer ingredients in addiction addition to nicotine, which are commonly found ingredients in foodstuffs and some flavorings. And this, in general, the difference in number of compounds in ecigarettes versus cigarettes makes ecigarettes, safer, although they can probably vary from product to product. A lot of the safety of these cigarettes depend on temperature controls. So, for example, if products have adequate temperature control, they tend to be less toxic. Weve known cigarettes for a while cause cancer. Talking about prevention, i remember in third grade seeing lungs sitting in a jar that had somebody who had passed away from cigarette use. But i guess what im trying to get down to is, what are the Health Effects on the combustible side of it and what are the effects of the nicotine site . Nicotine side . Importantnd thats an point to raise. If we look at nicotine in and of itself, its not riskfree but its probably a lot less toxic compared to the other chemicals that come out of cigarette smoke. For example, nicotine probably does not cause cancer. It may have some small effects on existing cardiovascular disease and so forth. Adapt to might have to having a drug on board, or neural effort neural adaptations, which are true for any drug. But the nicotine itself is not the culprit when it comes to things like cancers, at least as far as we know. To have aseem competing set of facts here. We have data that shows teen ecigarette use has gone up a mentioneden dr. , you a lot of that is transitional. Is it not . Is it new years . I guess new use . I guess if you can clarify that so we have a better idea of new use, transitional use. Thats an important question i dont think we have a good handle on yet because a lot of the service we look at our crosssectional, meaning a slice in time. We see kids that report to us that they are using one or two days or every day and so forth. Studies thatare track kids over time to actually see the ones are starting out one or two days go on to use more. Dont knowain, we what the real implications are of these different patterns of use and i want to emphasize, share the concern that kids shouldnt be trying these products and they shouldnt be using them, certainly shouldnt be using them on a frequent basis. Shows huge use, over 2 million american High School Students, a fraction of them experiment. Others become regular users. Touch as a to physician on the health of of vaping. If you start smoking today, its 2040 years before you get lung cancer. No one knows what its like breathing over and over. Its an experiment, frankly. We will find out, years from now, the results. The flavor industry knows the compound we put into our food, when you breathe them in so, for example, the classic example is buttered popcorn, microwaved buttered popcorn. It caused severe restrictive lung disease on the part of industrial workers. Were taking a wide variety the ecigarette industry has taken flavored chemicals, cotton candy and cookie flavors, mixed them, and they are exposed over and over into the lungs. We just dont know yet the longterm results. There is no doubt in my mind that vaping is safer than conventional smoking. But that doesnt mean that its safe. Thank you, mr. Clout. I now recognize congresswoman to lead for five minutes talib for five minutes of questioning. Nk you i want to think the thank you. I want to thank the witnesses for being here. People call rhetoric to discredit a lot of the things were pushing forward. I just want you to know you have the truth on your side. Be stronger for that. Because we dont need more studies. We already know the truth here. In the few years after juul was founded in 2015, it dominated the market through a targeting advertising campaign. It seemed to be a Winning Strategy as it accounts for 76 of the ecigarette market, which is simply staggering. What i find troubling is that, in the same timeframe, the rate of teen nicotine addiction skyrocketed. In cdc found 75 increase ecigarette use among hostile students from 20172018. So, its no coincidence to me that teens who use ecigarettes exclusively refer to the activity as juuling. Marketing you studied practices since the Company Started in 2015. Based on your expertise, should juul have been aware the marking campaign would appeal to youth and teens . Absolutely. Huge teenage fads dont happen by accident. The beatles and beetle beanie babies were products of clever promotional activities. Adjuu o was so was juul agencies understand marketing to baby boomers, and gen zers. Ad agencies follow the instructions of their clients. They dont work independently. Certainly, the company knew very well when they chose to use instagram who are the users of instagram are, underage youth by an far. So i dont think theres any question that juul knew its actions were perpetuating the youth epidemic in juul. You are a professor at stanford, the same university they attended. Have you ever met them . Yes. Team, we my Research Went up to juul last summer in august. You know, he was quite interesting. He thanked us for the database we have of 15,000 traditional tobacco ads online. He said they were very helpful. This struck us so much, that as the seven of us left of the meeting, was the first thing we talked about, how surprising it was that he indicated juul was granted in traditional advertising. And in fact, we know very well, having studied tobacco advertising, juuls marketing recapitulates the methods used by the Tobacco Industry to target young people. And that includes brands such as marlborough, which they closely emulated. They were direct derivatives in juul advertising. Juuls Mission Statement asserts it aims to improve the lives of one billion adult smokers. Do juuls marketing practices aligned with that stated mission . Not for the first three and a half years. On the fourth year, at that point, when already the youth fad was raging, their ads became more calibrated to an adult audience. They had now switched campaigns depicting middleaged and older adults. Its in printed newspaper and on television and no longer are they promoting on social media. This only happened long after there was a youth epidemic and it was because of the unwanted and intense intention by regulators. There was concern about their investors, particularly Companies Like fidelity, an early investor, who certainly didnt want to be associated with products no, it always leads to profits. The explosion of their marketing already had an impact on youth. How do we continue to see additional Marketing Campaigns influenced on kids in social media today . Taking on itsul old marketing didnt stop over the hashtags. Alone, there were over a quarter million posts. Since last november to now, it doubled to over half a million. And i really do appreciate that. But it is important to note, what extended me the most is that the deleted facebook, instagram, but juuls twitter followers, half of them are under the age of 18. Just because you delete them, doesnt mean they never happened. Thank you so much. Host a few moments ago, we heard from a medical School Professor who testified juuls advertising was based on the early advertising of the cigarette industry. The next day, a juul executive denied that. My name is james. Adam and i founded juul labs, and im the chief product officer of the company. Im really quite grateful for the opportunity to be here today and address you all. From the moment adam and i began the journey that would lead to the juul system, we were clear in our goal, to help improve the lives of adult smokers. Were proud of the progress weve made towards that goal. We never wanted any nonnicotine user, and simply certainly no one underage, to ever use juul products. If the data clearly shows a significant number of underage americans are doing so, this is a serious problem. Ever company has no higher priority in fighting it. Itsderstand our stance, helpful to understand how this company came about in the first place. Adam and i smoked. We tried to quit and we failed. Becomingn our way to one of the nearly 500,000 americans who die each year from smoking related disease. For us, giving up smoking required an alternative which did not exist at the time. Inventded juul labs to one. The products hold the product to do what no Previous Technology has done, help adult smokers stop smoking combustible cigarettes on a widespread and consistent basis. Recent behavioral studies find half of adult smokers who purchase and use juul products switch completely from smoking cigarettes within six months. In fact a fact that we could not be more proud of. That study aligns with realworld experience. In 2018, cigarette sales declined 5 , the fastest rate of decline in a decade. Put, juulan, simply isnt a big tobacco. We are here to eliminate its product, the cigarette. Our difference from tobacco manufacturers is fundamental. First, our product does not involve burning tobacco, which unleashes 7000 chemicals, at least 250 of which are known to be harmful. Products do contain nicotine, which is addictive, but is not directly responsible for the diseases associated with smoking. Public Health Authorities such as Public Health england, have concluded that vaping is a fraction of the risk of smoking. At least 95 harmful less harmful, and of negligible risk to bystanders. Second, our companies incentives are totally different than those of Tobacco Companies. Traditional Cigarette Companies face a saturated, concentrated Global Market. Juul labs, on the other hand, has reached just 0. 3 of a Global Market of one billion smokers, 70 of whom want to quit actively. Our incentive is to help them achieve their goal of transitioning from cigarettes. It is an astonishing business opportunity, no doubt, but it is an historic paternity for Public Health. Underage use of our products does not advance that goal. It imperils it. Third, unlike cigarette manufacturers, a company swiftly acknowledges and acts on health data. We embrace appropriate regulation. And we have acted voluntarily to restrict our own practices and services of Public Health goals. These actions include unilaterally ceasing sales of certain products to retail stores, investing our own funds to drive retailer compliance, and proactively advocating for raising the legal age to buy our own products. We believe that if the steps we have already taken became the category wide standard, it would go a long way to driving down underage access and usage of vapor products. Mr. Chairman, we are prepared to do more. We have met with many of our sharpest critics and have set their suggestions for how we can improve. We remain open to their input. We are committed to cooperating with this committee, state attorney general, and other officials who wish to examine our practices. And we are dedicated to learning from our mistakes and not repeating them. In doing so, we hope to earn the trust of this committee, congress, our regulators, our customers, and the american public. We are grateful for the opportunity to discuss these important topics and look forward to answering your questions. Doctor,rday, sir, a professor from stanford university, testified under before this subcommittee that you confirmed to him that you reviewed stanfords Online Library of cigarette advertising and found it, and this is in sworn testimony, very helpful as you designed juuls advertising. You did in fact meet with him, didnt you . I did but i did not make that statement. Youre under o thin youre denying you made that statement, is that correct . I think he may have misread my commentary. In fact, the resource that he compiled is a useful resource back when adam and i were at stanford. We were very interested in understanding more about the historical bad actions of Tobacco Companies. And at that point, we were very interested in using his research to understand what bad actions Tobacco Companies have taken to familiarize ourselves with how not to run a business. So you deny his statement under of. Id like to put his assertion in context. Please show advertisement one. These images that you see on advertisement one contain a few different images. Ofht over here is a picture marlboros trade dress. In the middle is the original juul design that you came up with. And on the far right is the most recent juul design. Now, early on in your advertising, you enter into a settlement with Philip Morris. Set of board minutes that you produce to us, that says due to outlined in the settlement, we removed all juul branding that uses triangle and diamond shapes. Pmi is Philip Morris international, right . That is correct. And you settled a lawsuit where you copied their trade dress, is that correct . That was what they said. And how much did you pay . Zero dollars. So it involved no exchange of money, but it required that you abandon the triangles and diamonds, which are very similar dress,boros trade is that correct . We never designed the product to look like marlboro. You deny they look similar . With all due respect, youre comparing a piece of packaging to a piece of hardware. There is that the not the intent. So the baord minutes say due to the outline, we removed all juul branding that uses triangle and diamond shapes. Do you deny that was said . I do not deny that. Us theequest you give agreement within two weeks. Would you do that, please . Ill have to get back to you on that. I dont see why that would be a problem but i will check with my colleagues. We will subpoena that if thats what is required. The leadingboro is youth cigarette. Unfortunately, it says something that juul chose marlboro to emulate. Lets look at the flavors highlighted in this ad. On the right are the marlboro products. On the left are the juul products. Youll notice that the colors are very similar between the two companys product and one interesting thing i would like to point out is the flavors. Lets talk about the flavors for a second. Mango, andnt, virginia tobacco. Which flavor is juuls topselling product . Currently, after weve pulled all of our flavored products of the market and now are only available on our website with double age verification, the topselling product i believe is mint product, shortly followed by virginia tobacco. Thats right. Meant accounts for 74 of your sales. Flavor, obviously. Menthol based product. And its a menthol based flavor, correct . Correct. Can you please put slide three, or ad three up . So, recently you took out a fullpage ad in the washington post. You said taking flavored products out of stores, and i think thats what you alluded to a moment ago. The problem here that i see is that you left what you call the menthol based flavors in the stores, such as mint. Thats correct, yes. Still a flavoris thats available overthecounter in the stores. And according to the 20162017 population assessment for tobacco health, 96. 1 of 1217yearolds started with a flavored product. , additionally 97 of current youth ecigarette users used a flavored ecigarette in the path past month, such as mint. Flavors hook kids. And although you said you took all the flavors out of the stores, we left the mint flavor. Mr. Chairman, with all due respect, i think that what youll find is that these are unprecedented actions that we took. We heard these concerns and i agree with you that we should be concerned. And ever since we first heard these concerns, we looked to ourselves without new regulation coming and being imposed upon us, we took this action in and of ourselves. The products we pulled from market, the flavored products we pulled from market, represented more than 50 of our business at the time. I cant imagine a more responsive, proactive step that we could take to exactly the point that youre making. But when you pull the other flavors of the market, mint took their place. Mint is a flavor and it took the place of all the other flavors. Do you disagree with that . I do. Whats mostly taking the place is illicit legal products that dont comply is mint in your stores or not . It is. Thats all i need to know. Its a flavored product and its still in stores. Ill now recognize a ringing member. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Great to have you here. Do you feel juul is ever used deceptive Marketing Tactics to convey their products are not harmful . No,. Never. What was the purpose of creating fruity flavor pods . The purpose of flavors is to create a more efficacious solution. The mission of this company is to eliminate the death and disease, to improve the lives of a billion adult smokers around the world. We know that 70 of those people want to quit. There are a number of tools that we used as we were designing the juul platform in the first place, through need finding and empathetic research with smokers, where we could see opportunities to make a product that could be superior to cigarettes, that would make cigarettes ultimately obsolete. Plenty ofe see, in studies that weve run now, is that flavored products over index on switching efficacy. I said in my Opening Statement that 54 of adult smokers who pick up juul and use juul quit smoking entirely after a sixmonth period. Even more importantly, that number continues to go up as we look more longer to newly. That number is much higher by as much as 30 when those consumers have access to flavored products. Thats our intent. So you created the company to disrupt the cigarette industry . Cigarettes isng the leading cause of preventable death on earth. It kills almost 500,000 americans every year, and it cost us 300 billion. Are you concerned by the number of teenagers who report vaping or using juul . I could not be more concerned about that. Was your product ever intended for underage use . Not, 100 absolutely not. So you never intended on that product having the rates of underage usage that it apparently has . Look, unfortunately, the long history of tobacco is also the long history of underage use of those Tobacco Products. For as long as Tobacco Products have been available, underage consumers have access to those products and use them, pretty much for always, illegally. I was one of those. I bought those products illegally and i used them. There hasnt been a lot of advancement in the way we control access to those products. Products,ilding these not only are they not designed for youth, it imperils the business if you use these products. What we really need to do is work, hopefully this committee, every tobacco researcher analyst possible, anyone we can get our hands on, to help us create industrywide practices. And were trying to prove what those practices should be and what they really can be. So preventing underage usage is a priority for juul . There is no higher priority. What steps are you taking to prevent this . Sure. As i mentioned last year in 2018, going back even further than that, weve taken escalating steps as we learned about these problems. Unfortunately, most of the criticism that weve received doesnt come directly to the company. We welcome that and wed love to work more directly with people that have critiques with the company. But when we hear that criticism, we take this extremely seriously and we take action. These steps move through to one that i really want to highlight. Pulledmber of 2018, we 50 of our revenue of the market. There is nothing requiring us to do that but we heard the critique. What we left on the market was tobacco based and menthol based products, just the same way cigarettes exist on the market. Let me ask one last question. Have you been working with the fda to institute any changes to prevent youth use of your product . Some, there have been conversations the fda has taken up with us, in particular how to run surveys. Understand when we want to better understand the usage very difficult for us to study youth directly, right . One of the ways in which weve had the most valuable or positive relationship with the fda thus far was just getting guidance from them on how we can better study its usage. Thank you, and mr. Chairman, my time has expired. I want to take your statement in good faith that you are taking this seriously. Unfortunately, there is so much evidence to the contrary, so im hoping you can offer me some answers and clarity. When your product enter the market, existing ecigarettes contained 1026 miller grahams of nicotine liquid. You use this affirmation that removes the harshness and bad taste of nicotine, and triples the nicotine content over existing product, making it the most potent ecigarette on the market. The eu in the u. K. Capped the levels, a third of your u. S. Product. With that cap, you still sell the product in the eu and u. K. , correct . We do. Last year, israel also capped it, calling juul a grave danger to Public Health. Juuls product was already on the market there. He recalled your 59 milligram product and enter that market in israel with a 20 milligram product, correct . Correct. Obviously juul determined it can still make money selling at less levels. Yes or no, do you think a 20 milligram product can accomplish your mission in helping adult smokers quit smoking conventional secrets . So, let me provide a little bit of context or. Not much context. I understand. The first product was designed to mimic, but never exceed the curvature i really just want a clear answer of can you achieve your stated mission of helping smokers quit smoking conventional cigarettes using a 20 milligram per liter product . We would love to try. But youre already trying in every country except this one. The u. K. Studys that ecigarettes help quit smoking. But you didnt mention participants freezing below the 20 milligram per liter number, nowhere near the 59 level in your u. S. Product lets product. Late last year, juul was developing a part that would comply, but would increase voltage and temperatures in the device. Is that accurate . Im not sure what youre referring to with voltage and temperatures. The actual delivery device, wher eyoure increasing the voltage and the temperature of the device instead of having 59 milligram per milliliter cap, you would have you would go down to 20 and deliver a more potent Delivery System of nicotine into the bloodstream. Is that accurate . Im not sure im not aware. If you could answer that question for the record, i would appreciate that. Its mindboggling that you dont know the answer. Are you aware this can make the pods more addictive, if that were the case . If we were to increase the voltage . And the temperature at which the liquid is delivered. Our products are quite notably temperature controlled. Were the only product on the market with closed loop to better control. So youre saying thats not accurate. Id like to get more specific information. Regulations. L has but theyve manipulated nicotine deliveries seems to disregard the spirit of the law. You appear to be marking yourself as a smoking fixation device, but you are not approved for that service. Fda approved smoking products include instructions for stepping down nicotine intake and winning of nicotine entirely. Does your product come with these instructions . It is not and we would never market it as a cessation product. Let me be clear, juul is not a cessation product. Thats news to me and probably everyone in this room that juul is not marketing yourselves as a nicotine or Smoking Cessation product. Every other vaping product except yours . So when someone starts on juul, would you have any problem keeping them as a customer for life . Thats what your intent is . You dont want to use it as a Smoking Cessation tool. It just when people addicted to nicotine their entire lives. Absolutely not, no. 70 of smokers want to stop smoking immediately. The most important thing they can do to improve their Life Expectancy is move away from cigarettes. That is the stage were at right now. Juul does a great job of that. Do you consider yourself a part of big tobacco . I consider big traditional backup company has a Major Tobacco Company as a major investor in our company. In that last segment, we heard from congresswoman Debbie Wasserman schultz about her legislation on vaping. What are the major issues congress is considering regarding vaping . What are the prospects for ecigarette legislation in 2020 . There are a lot of bills in congress right now. Most of them from democrats, but a notable number of republicans have signed on as well. The movement in congress is about to limit access to flavors and require any company who wants to sell a flavored ecigarette product to prove the flavor is essential for the product to help an adult switch from a traditional cigarette, and also show that the product is not a risk for youth starting nicotine in the first place, which could be a difficult proposition for an ecigarette maker to prove. Because that is such a tough standard to meet, the backers of this legislation think it will effectively ban flavors from the market. Thanks. We will hear from congressman jim jordan, questioning one of juuls cofounders. You have a product consumers like, dont you . Certainly. Story, understand the you and your friend were sitting around in college and said we would like to try to develop a product that is much less harmful than traditional cigarettes, could be a way to get people away from smoking cigarettes, and you did that, correct . Yes. When you developed and started marketing that product, did you follow the law . Absolutely. Had 70 ne said you growth in market share over the past months . That sounds about right. You had this tremendous market share growth, and you followed the law through the entire time you had that growth. Is that right . Followed the law, developed a product that will take us away from harmful cigarettes, can phase you from nicotine altogether, and somehow you are a horrible guy. This is a complex company, no doubt about it. Empathetically, i want to express this this isnt my favorite thing, to be here today, but i dont mind, right . I dont mind, because this is extremely important. I very much understand the skepticism. This industry has done wrong for a truly long period of time. We are changing that from the inside out with products delivered by innovative people, from a company 100 committed to changing the fabric of this market to eliminate ecigarettes for good. We are seeing these tools actually work. We do not and i think this was stated by the chairman extremely well at the beginning we dont want any underage consumers using this product. We need to Work Together to make sure that no underage consumers use this product. It is terrible for our business, for Public Health, for our reputation. Get onto the business of saving lives. You have this amazing growth in market share. You are no longer marketing on social media platforms, is that right . That is correct. You are placing limits on the quantity and types of things that can be sold at retail outlets. That is right. Even though you follow the law, you dont have to make those changes. For reputational concerns, you as a company decided to do those two things. For the safety of young people. And as an example. I think the actions we are taking we are trying to lead by example. We are trying to show we are willing to take independent action to protect young people from access to these products. If those standards were adopted on an industrywide basis, if we could stop these counterfeit products from entering the market, if other companies that werent willing to do these things were held to the same standards, then we believe we would be looking at substantially lower youth usage. How many people work for juul . 3000. 3000 jobs you provide. You developed a product as an alternative to harmful traditional cigarettes as a way to help people from hopefully stop smoking altogether. An amazing product that has a 76 growth in market share. You employed 3000 people. You made decisions you decided to change just to make sure young people dont get access to your products, like something marketing on social media stopping marketing on social media. You have publicly said you dont think anyone should be using Tobacco Products, including your own, until they are 21. Yet the reward is you get brought to congress and yelled at by democrats. We think it is an incredibly important mission. We have 3000 people now. I have never met a more Mission Oriented group of folks. We know there is a lot of stigma in this industry historically. We know it is easy to assume we are tobacco 2. 0. We are quite the opposite. I yield back. We just heard juuls cofounder take credit from voluntarily removing flavored ecigarettes, other than menthol, from store shelves. The head of the american thinking Association Vaping association thinks flavored shoulds should be remain on the market. Longavors were invented before the Tobacco Industry though ecigarettes were viable. The industry responded. Users of tobacco flavors, adult users, are more likely to build to still be smoking. It leads people to continue to smoke. Fart and sweet flavors by the most popular among adults who have switched. In september, President Trump appeared in the oval office with help from the health and Human Services secretary to announce plans to ban flavored ecigarettes. President trump we have a problem in our country, a problem nobody thought about too much years ago, and it is called vaping. Especially as it pertains to innocent children. They coming home, and they are saying, mom, i want to vape. The parents dont know too much about it. They do know it is causing a lot of problems. We will have to do something about it. One of the reasons we are meeting today is to let you know it is out there. We want to have parents understand that we are studying it very carefully. Ands, again, very new potentially very bad. There have been deaths and a lot of other problems. People think it is an easy solution to cigarettes, but it turns out it has its own difficulties. Secretary azar to say a few words. We wanted to discuss the situation. Not only was it a problem overall, but specifically with respect to children. We are getting some stories that we dont want to hear. We may very well have to do something strong about it. If i could ask you to say a few words, mr. Secretary. We briefed the president and first lady today on as yet undisclosed new data from the National Youth tobacco serving. Tobacco survey. This information shows continued surging in adolescent usage of ecigarettes. It also shows that youth are drawn to flavored ecigarettes, including mint and menthol. Currently a million adults use ecigarettes 8 million adults use ecigarettes, but 5 million children are using ecigarettes. This is exceptionally harmful to our children. An entire generation of children risk becoming addicted to nicotine because of the attractiveness and availability of these vaping products. So with the president s support, ae fda intends to finalize guidance document that would commence enforcement to require that all flavors, other than tobacco flavor, would be removed from the market. This would include mint and menthol flavoring, as well as candy flavors, bubblegum flavor, fruit flavor, alcohol flavor you get the drift. Once the fda would finalize this guidance, we would begin Enforcement Actions to remove all such products from the marketplace. We would allow tobacco flavoring to remain, subject to their filing, the manufacturers of the ecigarette products filing for free market tobacco approval with the food and Drug Administration to assure the availability of their product is consistent with the standards set by the Tobacco Control act. Any other products which would be removed from the market would be able to apply under the similar regulatory pathway for approval. With the president s support, while we would allow flavored tobacco ecigarettes to be available for adults seeking to stop the use of combustible tobacco, if we find that children are being attracted to tobacco flavored ecigarettes, if we find manufacturers are marketing tobacco flavor ecigarettes to children, we will take enforcement action there also. Let me turn it over to the acting commissioner of the food and Drug Administration for any further details and comments. The data gathered by the cdc and fda are as the secretary described. It shows an alarming trend of abuse by children of flavored ecigarette products. The president is directing the fda to take Decisive Action against this problem, and to finalize our plans we have been working on. This would have the effect of severely curtailing access to flavored ecigarette products, which we believe drive childhood and will help us get a handle on this concerning trend. President trump commissioner sharp has been working on this very hard, but he will double and triple up. We already have laws as we need them, but we want to get to the bottom of a very unusual situation. It has become so big so fast. It could be a potential severe problem. Commissioner, you know what to do. It is something that frankly should have been looked into a few years ago in a much more advanced way. We have something that will be interesting to see what turns up. You will be able to report back in the very near future. We will see what happens. President trump in september said his ministers in one report administration would report back on rules regarding flavored ecigarette. What has happened in addition to that announcement in early january . Will they come out with additional roles . Rules there has been an evolution in the administrations thinking. They said they would clear the market entirely of flavors, with no exceptions. What they did in the end was making exceptions for the vape shops that are selling more adult oriented products, and for menthol flavors. They said they did this because, as they got data back from surveys, among youth, the most popular products were juul or other cartridgebased products, and that the most popular flavors were things like mint, mango, and other fruit flavors, while a small percentage of High Schoolers were reporting tobacco or menthol flavors as their preferred choice. That is why they decided to exempt those two flavors. There is some fear that young people will continue to use juul , just with tobacco or menthol flavors. On the other hand, fewer kids were starting them because of the appeal of fruit flavors and otherwise might be less interested. They wanted to preserve the menthol option, because Menthol Cigarettes are still available. They would rather steer adults toward using Vape Products rather than combustible cigarettes. In november, President Trump held a meeting with those from from the industry and health groups. President trump if you dont give it to them, it will come here illegally. They are going to make it. Instead of legitimate Companies Making something safe, they will sell something on a Street Corner that will be horrible. That is the one problem i cant seem to forget. You have to look at history. Instead of having a flavor that is at least safe, they will have a flavor that is poison. That is a big problem. There are very large Cigarette Companies at the table. Most members of our trade association are Small Businesses that have built this industry from the ground up. President trump what are you seeing are you seeing . A flavor ban will not work. People will go to the black market. Adults are demanding these flavors. Isnt thatrump going to be sold illegally . Someone can open up a shop in china and ship in flavors and you dont know what standard you are getting. Isnt that a problem . You can buy 15 different versions of juul mango, which has been off the market. President trump not your product, but products made illicitly. What we are focused on is getting these products off the market. President trump what is it called . Counterfeit products we are not producing on the market today. President trump how bad are they . You just dont know. We have 3 million kids who are addicted. 5. 3 million kids. One million kids a day are using these products repetitively. Since the flavors have been introduced, we have seen a meteoric rise in use my kids use by kids. The number one flavor of ecigarettes on the market was tobacco flavor. We are not talking about removing all ecigarettes. We are talking about removing the flavors that have fueled the epidemic with kids. President trump the flavors wont they just be made illegally . What you will see last year, we saw 1. 5 million mortgage become addicted. More kids become addicted. We can close that ramp. You said that in september. We can close the on ramp. People need flavors in order to do it. Most adults are not using flavors. They are using flavors today. You go back to using the flavor of the product that almost kills. Is flavors. Revenue we are not juul, sir. Is it the largest . Surveyaccording to the of kids get them from friends or those 18 or older. 10,000 stores. Kids are overwhelmingly able to get these flavors. These are not adult only shops. It is very important to from gast is separate and Convenience Stores. Supplied byape shop the manufacturer. That is the number one outlet where people purchase that is not [indiscernible] get their vape from stores. To5 of nineyearold 17yearolds get their vapes from a vape shop. In the same study, it also said these kids are refused only 25 of the time. We sell a lot of age restricted products. It is important to our members to restrict the Product Sales properly. That is one of the reasons why our compliance rates President Trump with or without flavor . We take it very seriously. This whole debate over flavors half the audience here firmly dont help atrs all smokers to reduce risk. There is a huge concern about youth attracted to vape because of the flavors. We have to double down. Usage is a serious problem. We removed the busines the flavors from our business. When we saw the youth data, we thought the most responsible thing was to remove flavors. President trump yet you think we should have flavors. Yes. We demonstrated through our Business Model unique to juul that we can build an adult audience of smokers without creating a new audience of abusers. It has been illustrated through the data. 146,000conducted inspections of retail establishments. We had 29 violations. Juul had 60 times more violations. They sell three times more products than us. President trump why is that . Because of the way we implemented itself Police Policies selfPolice Policies. No one can say you can permanently end youth use. We will fully support the fdas process. Flavors played an Important Role for helping an adult put down a cigarette and switch to a product which has less risk. We think the science is important. We think the fda is most appropriate to determine. President trump are you ok . You have the flavors. We are making the right decision. Juul removed mango in 2018, and youth use rose. How about children . We have almost 6 million kids addicted to nicotine. They are getting addicted to nicotine because of flavors. Are saying they did not even know it had nicotine in it. They thought it was a candy product. I salute the fact that juul said they are taking these products off the market because they care about kids. The adults have access to menthol products through juul, tobacco flavor products. Putting out cotton candy flavor and unicorn poop flavor this is kid products. We have to put the kids first. [indiscernible] not only have we called for increasing the age to 21, that is a nobrainer. That keeps it away from the 18yearolds. [indiscernible] we have rolled out 21 different marketing restrictions. Whatng advertising is senator romney is complaining about. Everyone criticizes the industry for their marketing, but nobody is talking about putting in marketing restrictions. President trump what do you think about the senate bill . I think a better approach would be to raise the age to 21. On top of that, you have to increase penalties for retailers. Our retailers are fine with increased penalties. They are interested in keeping these products out of the hands of kids. Today, the fda can allow you seven strikes before you are told to stop selling Tobacco Products. That is unacceptable. We are in the age of technology. This is a Technology Product helping people quit smoking. President trump in some cases. It is extremely important. [indiscernible] this is a crisis. A teenage boy in my office crying, saying he cant get off it. This is a crisis. Kids sleep with juuls under their pillows, so when they wake up in the middle of the night, they can vape. We have nothing in our arsenal message. Ve the same we need to take all flavors off the market, pending fda investigation. We worry if we leave one flavor on the market, even menthol, the children will go to that, because they are going to want something. President trump so none of these guys are going to do it. They are legit companies. How do you feel that it will be shipped in from mexico . I hope secretary azar has a solution. This is where it goes back to the children. We have 5 million children addicted now, but we dont want another 5 million children addicted. Children like flavors. We flavor medicines because it tastes good. Medicine is good for children, but ecigarettes are not, so they should not have flavors. We know many of these kids want to quit. They need help quitting. We asked kids, what would you do if all flavors were taken off the market . 61 , the number one answer, was quit. We introduced a quick Vaping Program quit Vaping Program on your phone. In january, with no promotion, 60,000 kids signed up for it. These kids are angry. They didnt sign up for this. They thought it was fun flavors. President trump and then they get addicted. [indiscernible] the American Medical Association commends you for the stents the stance you took. Toknow youth are attracted ecigarettes. Preventative Services Task force have not found evidence among adults that these products were for Smoking Cessation. If they do, they should take to the fda it to the fda so we can evaluate it. President trump wouldnt you say it is a lesser problem than smoking cigarettes . No, mr. President. Nicotine addiction is bad for childrens brains. President trump how does it compare to normal smoking of cigarettes . Neither one are good. [indiscernible] ofthe Royal College physicians, the Public Health of england, stated [indiscernible] those using these products are not kids who are smokers. They often would not become smokers. [indiscernible] it is consistent with all of the government studies. These are not our figures. That is just not accurate. Less than 1 . Most of the kids who tried this product have already tried some other Tobacco Products. These kids have at risk behaviors. [indiscernible] i sorry, but that is false. Is a completely statement. Half of the kids in high school are they going. Are vaping. [indiscernible] President Trump what do you think . The American Cancer Society is an evidencebased organization, like all Public Health groups here. President trump what is your public stance . It is a new, modern age problem. When did this begin . Two years ago. President trump tell me what your stance is. Our stance is aligned on what you success did you suggested september 11, to take all flavored ecigarettes off of the market. President trump regardless of age . Absolutely. President trump what about over 21 . No . It is an epidemic of youth use. President trump wouldnt they use it a lot less if they dont have flavors . [indiscernible] an entire industry would disappear if flavors disappeared. President trump you are the Biggest Company. Why doesnt the Biggest Company have flavors . They are playing a longterm goal. Sit out, file applications with the fda, let the small and mediumsized businesses go the way of the dinosaurs, and they can come back and have 90 of the market. They cant wait. 1,000 are talking about 15 jobs. An Economic Analysis we just put out this morning concluded over 13,000 Small Businesses they wouldd do that, eliminate [indiscernible] is not sorry, that right. The data says there are approximately 10,000 vaping shops. Equivalentime employees per. Hold on. The Convenience Stores they sell a lot of products. They are not going to go out of business because they dont sell flavors, so it is the vape shops. They are not going to all go out of business because they cant sell flavors. Some may. That would be unfortunate. There are 50,000 employees, fulltime equivalents, of vaping shops. You are talking about 100 kids addicted per one employee, typically minimum wage. I put the kids first. Pers over 100 kids employee. This is the sector of the industry that has grown up to compete with the cigarette industry, trying to yank the cigarette smoker off that cigarette. There is no reason we cant do both things in this country. If you eliminate flavors, because flavors make up 85 to 90 of sales, they will go out of business. No Small Business owner could take that kind of hit to their revenue. President trump he is saying you are going out of business. Why is juul not going out of business because they dont do flavors . They can wait it out. I have the market share. President trump what is your game . A sciencebased argument. We want to preserve an option for adult smokers who want to quit want to quit. President trump you really think flavors are dangerous, then, in terms of addiction and other things. I think flavors can play a role for those with addiction. Kids have access President Trump who will take your place . He will have counterfeit you will have counterfeiters. Stovall, we have not first growth we have not seen [indiscernible] finnish let me finish. I did not interrupt you all. You have companies that will produce products that have tobacco flavor. For companies to show they have a product with or without a flavor that promotes cessation and doesnt appeal to to the fda for review. Having alking about sciencebased decision made about what is in the publics interest. What do you do in the interim . If we do nothing in the interim, we will make up wake up six months from now and another halfmillion kids will be addicted. President trump the concept of letting states make their own decision, what about that . We put a 21 limit, because everyone seems to agree on that. We put an age limit, 21. What about the concept of every state decides . Nationwide, we need protection for our kids wherever they live. You dold not be that if not live in a state that that is why the fda has this authority to address complicated questions and put in place rules and make sciencebased decisions. Every company in the country has to do that by may of this year anyway. The fda is under a statutory obligation to provide an answer within six months. We are weighing this nearterm solution being proposed. I have children. I would not want them using these products too. Fda has to make the decision by december of next year anyway, versus 100,000 jobs. For the record [indiscernible] i understand this is an important conversation about jobs, but i am here because our group represents millions of families of moms across this country and dads, and grandparents you can go to any state in this country, this is what people are worried about. I will tell you this is a generation of children that would otherwise not have been initiated into tobacco use. We know that because the youth use figures were at the lowest they have ever been. Before juul came on the market th huge amounts of nicotine [indiscernible] is severetion addiction. Enormous amounts of nicotine, more than a combustible cigarette. Parents are terrified. We hear this all across the country, all walks of life, in the suburbs, in the country. Straight a students are flocking out of school. Flunking out of school. Star athletes cant run a mile. I hear all the time, i dont recognize my child. Parents are in pain, and we need you. President trump what is your solution . Ban . No, if you have the real solution, just ban them. No. My solution is what you had the right instinct for at the beginning, which is flavors have hooked the kids. Leave tobacco flavors. Your original suggestion. We are not prohibitionists. Leave tobacco flavors for adults. If the science ultimately proves that this is going to help people quit, they should have that right. I dont think the science is there yet. We need more data. There were a lot of statements made about harmarettes and them as reduction devices. There has been no evidence provided to the fda. Any manufacturer that makes that claim will be enforced against. Act requiresontrol bringing forth that evidence in premarket authorization. President trump what do you think . Hard to take the virtue signaling going around. We were excited there was an opportunity. I come from a bluecollar world. My brother is a smoker. I understand it is a very addictive behavior. Beginningiting at the to think there was an offrtunity to get people tobacco. The people buying their products were aging out until they had ecigs. They targeted kids. They paid influencers on social media to make it cool, and suddenly we have a problem again. These people are in cahoots with the marijuana and Tobacco Industry. We get money from nobody. I like your original solution. I think we take it to 21 and ban all flavors. Your point earlier was correct. When you make something illegal, there is always the black market. We can say that about heroin. We can make it legal. We can say that about opioids. I dont know if that works. President trump thank you. From the American Lung association, i want to echo our Public Health partners. The number one concern we hear from our communities, from parents, from schools how do we address this epidemic we are facing . All of those are looking to your leadership role in helping create the next generation. President trump American Lung what is your solution . To ban all flavors. President trump including menthol . That is a very big statement. Importantainly is an step, but it is that you are one putting out in september. 160 million reasons for Michael Bloomberg to not come to the table [indiscernible] we are parent advocates, volunteers, because parents are in pain. I sat at a table on monday with 13 families for massachusetts. Every story was individual to them, but also the same. People who said their kids were no longer recognizable. Their kids could not focus in school. Their kids were having trouble breathing. There kids were angry. This is not a small thing. This kind of nicotine addiction at these levels, parents across this country care, and we know that you care. President trump you want to ban all flavors . All flavors, including menthol. If you get rid of just the mint, the kids will go to menthol. The kids are addicted. Only now when kids are frightened do they understand they are not in control. To the point of the predatory behavior, the reason we started our group is because our sons came home from school in 2018 and said there was a mixed message presentation about juuling. In their school, with no other adults in the room, someone who came from an outside antiaddiction group in the end turned out to be a juul representative, told the kids that it was not for kids, but was totally safe and that it would receive fda approval any moment. Both those statements were and remain untrue, and that is why a group of moms started doing their own research and understood this was an epidemic of enormous proportions. The kids were targeted. These are not about risktaking kids. This affects all families. There are 5 million kids doing this. That means there are millions of families who are in pain, and they need you to save our generation. President trump how many children will do it if you get rid of the flavors . Lets say you dont have flavors. Right now you have 97 of 5 million. Kids who are vaping are using flavored vapes. President trump do you agree with that . Use numbers are certainly indicating kids are getting access to flavors. It came from the cdc. President trump will they put their own flavors in . Will they inject their own flavors in . Our product is a single use. 100 of the deaths result from counterfeit. That is a different issue. It is worth pointing out. President trump it is an important issue. Ive been reading about a lot of death, and the death is from counterfeit. It is not from juul. They are using other things. It is not nicotine products, it is cannabis. Our look at vaping and ecigarettes continues. The president went through an evolution in his thinking on vaping and ecigarettes, particularly underaged vaping. How did his thinking evolve . The president , after announcing what sounded like a widespread flavor ban he eventually seemed moved by some concerns raised by conservative groups and Small Businesses in the vaping industry about both economic and political impact of such a move. A lot of the vaping industry is a large corporations, but there is a sizable segment of Small Businesses that produce nicotine liquids. There are thousands of jobs that could have potentially been at stake if a full throated flavor ban went into effect. Conservative groups are also emphasizing the number of adults who vape in some of the states 2016, michigan, pennsylvania, the number of vapers in those states exceeds his margin of victory. They were making the argument that, if trump banned flavors, he could potentially lose those voters. In the days leading up to the january policy announcement, while trump was at his maralago resort, there were apparently protesters saying we vape, we vote lined up along his motorcade route. In the November White house meeting, we heard talk about banning the use of ecigarettes to those 41 and above. 21 and above. To purchasing agent for Tobacco Products the purchasing age for Tobacco Products is 21. That became the law of the land. The fda is probably going to be taking a few months before it is fully enforced around the country. In the meantime, a lot of states already have the age 21 in place. Might beat dont slower to enforce it. Right now, it is illegal for retailers to sell to anyone under 21. They need to be checking the ids of anyone that looks under 30. Not long after that white house meeting, the head of the fda testified in front of congress. He was asked whether the fda plans to ban ecigarettes. Secretary azar says the fda will issue guidance clearing the market of nontobacco flavored ecigarettes, including mint and menthol products. You are aware secretary azar announced the ban because the numbers show a continued rise in youth ecigarette use, including nontobacco flavors that appeal to kids. The secretary further stated more than a quarter of High School Students were current ecigarette users in 2019, and the overwhelming majority of youth ecigarette users, 75 of High Schoolers cited the use of fruit and menthol or mint flavors, correct . That is right. F the purpose of banning, o clearing the market of flavor ecigarettes was to decrease youth vaping, right . There is urgency. That is why the president said fda guidance and action would come in a couple weeks, right . That is what was said. There was an emergency felt at the time, right . You stated fdas work on the flavor guidance issue was a very high priority, and we are trying to complete work on it as quickly as possible, right . I said that. You said that on october 25. This flavor guidance has not been published yet, has it . No. According to a letter sent to me yesterday by the fda, fda drafted guidance and sent it to one office within the omb october 25, correct . Yes, sir. Fdas guidance document followed through on secretary azars announcement to clear all tobacco flavors. Why are you not getting into the substance . There are ongoing discussions taking place. I will not be able to get to the substance of that document. Who instructed you not to get into the substance . It is Standard Practice when there is ongoing policymaking, that we dont talk publicly about what is under consideration. I would be happy to come back and brief you and your staff when there is a final decision, but this remains an ongoing, open set of discussions. According to the fda letter sent to me yesterday, a review was concluded on november 4, correct . I cant go into the details of what remains ongoing discussions. You are familiar with something called executive order 866. According to this order, the fda is not allowed to publish in the federal register until it has completed its review, right . For things subject to the executive order. And this was one of them . Because of its significance, we sent it to omb for review. 12 866 talks about the policies submitted and sent back to fda. Correct. The policy is now back with the fda, correct . They completed their review on november 4 and sent the document back to us, but there were still ongoing policy discussions in parallel. Us novemberback to 4. Policy discussions between who . Parallel discussions between the fda and the white house. According to executive order 12866, the fda is not allowed in the federal register until oira completes its review. Fda can now publish the guidance, correct . Until the review of policy was done, but there are other ongoing policy discussions going on in addition to the oira review of the guidance document. Itparallel discussions sounds like some irregular s. Annel of discussion some other review that is happening right now that has nothing to do with oira or fda . There are ongoing policy related discussions between the agency, the department, and the white house about what the policy should be. Did oira really complete its review if they are still discussing this document . Oira completed its review. At other levels within the there wereparallel, discussions continuing about what the discussion should be. Who is part of those discussions at the fda . The leadership of the department and various parts of the white house. That leadership includes you . Peripherally. At the white house, who has leadership involved . The office of management of budget and others. I have not been directly involved in discussions with the white house. You would agree with me that the fda should be regulating Tobacco Products, dont you . That is our job. It is not a waste of time. It is something i devoted the last 25 years of my life to. That is why i am so concerned about your prior answer that the White House Domestic Council is part of these discussions, but he said it was a huge waste of time for fda to regulate tobacco. Last week, my home state of massachusetts placed a permanent ban on slavery ecigarette flavored ecigarette and menthol flavored products. We must ban all flavors. To not do so would be discriminatory, since menthol has posed a unique and deadly burden on the black community. We must clamp down on menthol products and not the individual possession of it. There are intergenerational traumatic consequences of broken window policing that has historically over criminalized black and brown communities. We must be simultaneously attuned to both Public Health and Public Safety to ensure there are no more eric garners. For years, the Tobacco Companies targeted more Menthol Tobacco ads in black neighborhoods. In some instances, as many as 10 times more ads for menthol products. Cdc reports nine out of 10 black smokers prefer Menthol Cigarettes. It is safe to say the targeting was effective, correct . I would agree. Today, 45 of black menthol smokers say they would quit smoking if Menthol Cigarettes were banned. A year would do the same. A year ago, the fda announced plans to ban Menthol Cigarettes necessary, because menthol products disproportionately adversely affect underserved communities. A year has passed, and the fda has not followed through. Why is that . Congresswoman, we went through an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking on a variety of issues related to flavors, including the presence of a menthol in cigarettes. I would add to what you said, that one of the Public Health concerns about methylated therettes is not just disproportionate use of Menthol Cigarettes by africanamericans, but the role the Menthol Cigarettes played in attracting kids of any color to experimenting with cigarettes. To review the comments and explore what the regulatory options and policies should be, but absolutely here i share your concern from a Public Health perspective. I am sorry, just to reclaim my time, in the interest of time. To be clear, on the record, does the fda plan to follow through with this ban . I cannot give you a yes or no answer. All i can tell you is that we are continuing to review all the evidence related to flavors on all Tobacco Products as we try to follow the revelatory science and come up with the right policy. To banious attempts menthol have been overridden by the office of management and budget. Why is that . You need to be more specific. I dont know what you are referring to. Do you want me to restate the question . I dont understand the specific instance you are referring to. Ok, i will move on. The point i am reiterating and i cannot underscore enough, because we are talking about a lifeanddeath matter, is that 47,000 black people die every year from smokingrelated illness, making this the largest cause of preventable death among black americans. Even more than gun violence or car accidents. So, we dont have more time. People are dying. In my final second, i just want to go to a different line for a moment. Not arettes are they recognized as an effective Smoking Cessation aid or not . They are not approved by the fda as a cessation aid. So they are not an effective cessation device. They are on onramp to hooking a new generation of smokers . If we can go past the 22nd a facte left, there is that the agency has to do with anything on flavors and that is balancing, are flavors helping adults successfully transition off cigarettes completely to a ecigarettes . What role are flavors playing . It is part of the balancing that we need to do. It is an easy call on the negative side of the ledger, when it comes to the role that flavors are playing in attracting kids to experiment, especially kids who are Walking Around thinking these are harmless products. But it is a balancing act because you have heard repeatedly from former smokers that it was the presence of certain flavors that helped them successfully transition completely away from cigarettes. Announcer the f. T. A. Official could not say if flavored ecigarette could be banned. The administration has since made that decision. What exactly has been banned and what isnt, and the simmons . You will no longer be able to buy fruit flavored cartridges or pods for ecigarette brands like juul. The only flavors you will be able to get for those products are tobacco and menthol. If you use the products and ecigarette that uses a refillable tank that you can buy liquid for a a vape shop, you will be able to continue to buy the flavors as long as the flavors they are selling arent exquisitely targeted towards children. We heard from Frank Pallone after the Administration Announcement on ecigarette usage, the chair of the energy and commerce committee, opposing the most by the administration. What else might we hear from congress in 2020 . One of the next steps we will see from the administer should enforcesow strongly it a may deadline for the cigarette manufacturers to submit applications for sales authorization to the fda. This is something that was required under the 2009 Tobacco Control act, and for the first , ecigarette later manufacturers are finally going to have to submit these applications to the fda to show things about their products, safety and data about whether it helps adults quit, and how risky establishing new nicotine users. So starting in may, the f. D. A. Will be considering those applications. A major question will be how much will the trump thenistration weigh against theth use potential benefits of helping adult smokers quit using traditional cigarettes. Concerned that the continuation, having any favors on the market will mean that young people will continue to be attracted to ecigarettes. And while the prospects of Congress Getting anything enacted into law now, beyond the tobacco 21 law seem unlikely in this session, the house is likely to take up and probably pass bills that will put more f. D. A. Tions on what the needs. They would put more restrictions on how the f. D. A. Considers the risks and the benefits of permitting a flavor to be on sale. Host joining us for a discussion on underage vaping and flavored ecigarette is andrew siddons. He covers health care for cq roll call. Thank you so much. Me. Hank you for having host we will close out our program with another look at President Trumps remarks on new years eve. Vaping is coming out. We are just going to be innocent very shortly. Some people already know about what were doing it. We have to protect our families. At the same time, its a big industry and we want to protect our industry. We are taking off the flavors were a parent of time, certain flavors. We are going to protect families, children, and were going to protect the industry. Hopefully if everything is safe, they will be going quickly back onto the market. So the flavors will come off. They will be checked. People have died from this. They have died from vaping. We think we understand why. But we are doing a very exhaustive examination, and hopefully everything will be back on the market very, very shortly. Look, vaping can be good from the standpoint you look at ecigarettes you stop smoking. If you can stop smoking, that is a big advantage. We think we are going to get it back on the market very quickly, but we have to protect the children. We have to protect the families. At the same time, we have a very big industry. It has become a very big industry. We are going to take care of the industry. Announcer go shopping and see what is now available at the cspan online store, including our on just our allnew campaign 2020 tshirts, such shirts and hats. Browse all of our products