TIME | June 24, 2022
Eric Lindblom, a former official at the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products and a senior scholar at the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law, was initially surprised after news broke that the FDA was expected to take Juul off the market, given that the agency recently authorized other similar vaping devices. The agency’s concerns about toxicological risks raise serious questions, he says.
“If FDA knew about this possible risky technical problem with Juul’s e-cigs, why didn’t it take action against those currently on the market sooner to protect consumers against leaching harmful chemicals, etc.?” he wrote in an email to TIME. “Are these technical problems unique to Juul—and not shared by any of the e-cigs FDA has allowed on the market?”