Public Health Groups Sue F.D.A. Over Flavored E-Cigarette Policy

A coalition of public health groups sued the Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday, seeking to block a new policy that could allow a wave of new flavored e-cigarettes and nicotine pouches to enter the market without completing the required scientific review.The lawsuit asks for a judge to set aside a policy that was announced in May and finalized just days after executives of companies pushing for it dined with President Trump at his golf club in Florida.Two days before the lunch, Reynolds American, which sent top staff members to the meeting, donated $5 million to a super PAC backed by the president, campaign finance records show.The new policy says that the F.D.A.

will not use its enforcement authority against makers of products that have made significant progress toward an agency approval decision.In practice, the policy is expected to allow major tobacco companies to begin selling an array of new flavored tobacco pouches and e-cigarettes within a matter of months.Until May, the F.D.A.

had authorized companies to sell vapes only in menthol or plain tobacco flavors, which are thought to be less appealing to young people.But unauthorized products with high levels of nicotine in flavors like strawberry slushie have poured in from China and are being sold illegally throughout the United States.Led by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, the plaintiffs in the lawsuit include the American Lung Association, American Heart Association, American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network and the American Academy of Pediatrics.The groups said that the new policy violates the Tobacco Control Act, enacted during the Obama administration, which required each individual e-cigarette and tobacco pouch to undergo an extensive F.D.A.

review before obtaining a “marketing granted order,” which is similar to an approval.The oversight is focused on whether each product is “appropriate for the protection of public health,” often measured by a company’s studies of its effect in...