The deadline to submit comments to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) proposed rules that would ban the sale of menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars closed on Tuesday, Aug. 2. The Vapor Technology Association (VTA) submitted comments on Tuesday in support of the FDA's proposed tobacco product standard banning menthol-flavored cigarettes and strongly encouraged the FDA to continue to build the necessary offramp to menthol and flavored vaping products for smokers to access effective smoking alternatives.

VTA Executive Director Tony Abboud issued a statement regarding the filing. "The menthol cigarette rule could be one of the most significant steps that the FDA has taken to protect public health in the United States. It has the potential to dramatically reduce cigarette smoking - the leading cause of death and disease of Americans - but only if the Agency heeds the warning of scientists that menthol smokers must have access to less harmful vaping and other alternative nicotine products. Without that, the rule threatens to turn what should be a public health victory into a weak half measure that, in the absence of other decisive action from the FDA, will fall far short of the benefits the Agency claims.”

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