WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration is ramping up its efforts to force vape shops and other retailers to stop selling unauthorized disposable vape brands that are increasingly popular with young people.
The FDA recently issued 189 formal warning letters to shops selling two brands of vape products, Elf Bar and Esco Bars, the agency announced in a press release Thursday. The FDA has not authorized either brand, both of which are ubiquitous in gas stations and smoke shops around the country. They are therefore illegal to sell.
“This latest blitz should be a wake-up call for retailers of Elf Bar and Esco Bars products nationwide,” said Brian King, the head of the FDA’s tobacco center in a statement announcing the blitz.
The move is the latest in a series of efforts to force both Elf Bar and Esco Bars off the U.S. market. In May the FDA announced it was issuing an order allowing the agency to seize both company’s products at international ports. The agency issued a formal warning to the company behind Esco Bars last month as well.
The FDA’s actions follow a May 2023 blitz of retailers selling Puff Bar, another disposable e-cigarette popular with young people.
The FDA action comes at the same time as a new report from officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the advocacy organization Truth Initiative, which paints a bleak picture of the FDA’s efforts to police the vape market. The data shows, for example, that Elf Bar has rapidly risen in popularity and was the third most popular vape as of December 2022. The data also show that the number of e-cigarette brands grew by nearly 50% from 189 to 269 — despite the fact that nearly every vape currently being sold is being done so illegally. Overall unit sales of vapes was 46.6% higher in December 2022 compared to January 2020, the data show.
That research, which was published in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, analyzed retail scanner data and did not differentiate between legal adult sales and unlawful underage sales, but the authors argue the data “could also reflect direct or indirect purchases by youths.”
Both Esco Bars and Elf Bar are made in China. There’s little information available publicly about the ownership or management of either company.
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