Washington (AFP)

Donald Trump's government announced Thursday that it will ban most flavors of electronic cigarettes using cartridges, popular with young people, but menthol and vapers using tanks will remain authorized, a compromise adopted after the lobbying of the sector.

The decision will take effect in early February and will ban refills with fruit, mint or candy flavors, for example. Juul, the market leader and the favorite brand of American middle and high school students, had anticipated the decision and already removed these flavors in the United States, leaving only their tobacco and menthol tastes on sale.

The menthol flavor can continue to be sold by all manufacturers, announced the American drug agency, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which has authority on the market.

Vapors using refillable tanks, which allow users to make their own mixes of nicotine or cannabis and flavorings, and are sold in specialty stores called "vape shops", will continue to be allowed, on the grounds that it is mainly adults who consume them, especially those who want to quit smoking.

"It's the cartridge and pod systems that created the problem, that's what attracts the kids," said Alex Azar, secretary of health, in a conference call. "Children mostly do not use open tank systems".

"Our goal is to see if electronic cigarettes can be used as an exit route for adult smokers who are addicted to combustible cigarettes, we think it is a possibility," he said.

It was this same minister who announced in September, after a meeting in the Oval Office with the president, that all flavors, including menthol, would be banned, with the aim of stopping vaping of young people. At the end of the summer, a crisis of severe and sometimes fatal lung diseases linked to vaping had been added to the general concern caused by the success of Juul in young people.

27.5% of high school students said they had vaped in the last 30 days, according to the 2019 government tobacco survey, compared to 11.3% in 2016.

The announcement sparked massive pressure from the tobacco and vaping industry for the government to backtrack, arguing the electoral consequences for the president, who stood for re-election in November.

Donald Trump had said that he would ultimately be raising the legal age from 18 to 21 to buy vaping products. "We will take care of the industry," he said on Tuesday evening.

The American Congress, at the end of December, voted the new minimum age of 21, which should be applied concretely by September throughout the United States. So far, only 19 of the 50 American states have adopted the legal age of 21, as for cigarettes.

- The "vape shops" spared -

The new regulatory landscape for vaping is becoming clearer after years of laissez-faire.

Since 2016, the FDA had authority over vaping and an authorization was technically necessary for the sale of any product, such as for cigarettes.

But the federal agency had chosen not to apply this rule, preferring to observe the market in the hope that vaping could be a public health solution for smokers who would like to stop smoking. The United Kingdom has adopted this position.

Now the FDA will enforce the ban, but selectively.

By February, cartridges with flavors other than tobacco and menthol will therefore be prohibited. Their manufacturers will be able to apply for authorization, but will not have the right to be distributed without authorization.

For all other products, manufacturers and distributors, including "vape shops" which make blends, must submit an authorization request by May 2020. They may continue to be sold in the meantime, and until '' 12 months after the filing of the application.

All will have to justify a public health interest, and that their products are not aimed at young people.

This scheme "should have minimal impact on vape shops" which focus on tank vapers and which control the age of their customers well, said Mitch Zeller, director of the FDA's tobacco center.

© 2020 AFP