Bipartisan group of senators press FDA for answers on illicit Chinese vapes

"If illicit products are displayed in the presence of FDA personnel, they must enforce the law," senators wrote.

A bipartisan group of senators, led by Sens. Thom Tillis (R., N.C.), Ted Budd (R., N.C.), and Martin Heinrich (D., N.M.), is pressing the Biden administration’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for answers on its lax stance towards illicit Chinese vapes that are flooding the American markets.

In some cases, the senators wrote to FDA Commissioner Robert Califf, the illegal vapes are being sold “in the presence of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) personnel despite their lack of market authorization.”

“Simply staffing a booth alongside illicit products is negligence,” they wrote. “If illicit products are displayed in the presence of FDA personnel, they must enforce the law.”

For years, lawmakers and law enforcement have warned about the dangers of illicit and unauthorized tobacco products flooding the American markets. Many view it as a matter of national security: “manufacturers, mostly from China, continue to pour their illicit vapes into the United States with few, if any, consequences,” the senators wrote.

The senators want answers from the FDA about a suite of questions, including “how does FDA, with federal partners, implement admission refusal and/or product destruction in cases such as the 53,700 [unauthorized electronic nicotine delivery systems] seized by Chicago CBP?” later in January.