Trump to Meet With E-Cigarette Advocates and Critics

(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump will meet with vaping supporters and critics Friday as the administration considers how to address an epidemic of youth e-cigarette usage.

The meeting with Trump will include “a diverse group of advocacy, industry, nonprofits, medical associations, and State officials,” Judd Deere, a spokesman for the White House, said Wednesday.

In September, Trump and U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar announced that they planned to stop the sale of all flavors of e-cigarettes other than tobacco. Since then, the administration appears to have backed off that plan amid a campaign by vaping advocates and still hasn’t produced long-promised guidance that was expected to stop the sale of e-cigarette flavors like mango and mint.

“The policy-making process is not stalled -- it continues to move forward,” Deere said.

Public health officials, including Trump’s former Food and Drug Administration commissioner, Scott Gottlieb, have described youth use of e-cigarettes as an epidemic, fueled by attractive fruit flavors and high doses of nicotine.

Trump, who has expressed concerns about youth usage and proposed raising the legal age for purchse to 21, has also said on Twitter that he’s concerned about protecting jobs in the nascent vaping industry. Deere said the meeting would allow Trump and others in the administration to hear from all sides of the debate.

Earlier Wednesday, the administration’s pick to lead the FDA, Texas oncologist Stephen Hahn, was grilled by senators during a confirmation hearing about his plans to deal with vaping. FDA officials have said the policy is still in development, despite indications that it had been ready to go for weeks.

On Wednesday, the administration also appears to have shelved a plan to cut nicotine levels in traditional cigarettes to non-addictive levels, a policy pushed by Gottlieb. The FDA said that while it was still working on that effort, it was not a near-term priority.

To contact the reporter on this story: Josh Wingrove in Washington at jwingrove4@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Drew Armstrong at darmstrong17@bloomberg.net, ;Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net, Mark Schoifet

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