AG Tong led a bipartisan coalition of 21 attorneys general urging the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to abandon draft guidance that would ease approvals for flavored e-cigarette products, widely understood to disproportionately worsen youth addiction.

Federal law requires that all e-cigarette products receive authorization from the FDA before they can be legally marketed or sold in the United States. To date, the FDA has authorized only 45 e-cigarette products. Until May 5, 2026, FDA had approved no flavors other than tobacco or menthol. However, just six days before today’s comment deadline, the FDA approved two fruit flavored products. Despite such limited authorization, hundreds of thousands of e-cigarette varieties in multitudes of flavors are currently available for purchase in flagrant violation of state and federal laws. Compounding their previous failures, on May 8, the FDA issued a press release announcing it would not prioritize enforcement against vapes and nicotine pouches marketed without necessary FDA authorization.​

In the letter, the attorneys general urge FDA to reconsider the draft guidance and to continue its careful scrutiny of all flavors to protect public health.

“FDA has failed to do its job for decades. They looked the other way as the market flooded with thousands of unauthorized flavored e-cigarettes, resulting in a new generation of addicted youth. Now, they are opening the door to approving certain flavors that they claim, without evidence, are less harmful to youth. FDA needs to stand up to Big Tobacco, do its job, and protect public health by abandoning this guidance.” – AG Tong