President Trump’s proposed ban of electronic cigarettes with anything but a tobacco flavor could kill a big part of the vape store business, but it may have a limited impact on curbing use by young people who can already flavor their own cartridges with readily available and attractive dessert tastes, industry experts say.  

Trump’s move came after new data showed teen vaping increased even as the availability of more kid-friendly flavors decreased. The Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb last year proposed restricting flavored e-liquids to vape stores that are age-restricted, but Trump’s move would go much farther. 

The announcement came in the midst of an outcry over the mounting death toll and hundreds of serious lung illnesses linked to vaping. Nearly all of the now-public cases involved young men who vaped both nicotine and THC oil. 

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Gottlieb told USA TODAY on Thursday that the deaths and illnesses and teen vaping concerns have been “conflated” and calls them “separate actions and separate public health concerns.” On CNBC Monday, Gottlieb called for a “federal reckoning” and regulation of cannabis due to its link to most of the reported lung illnesses and deaths. 

The proposed flavored vape ban, he said, is an “eminently reasonable step to take” given that the logical alternative would have been banning all e-cigarettes due to the rising use by teens. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said this week that new data show about a quarter of high school teens vaped in the last 30 days up from 20% from the prior year. 

As for whether companies could still sell separate flavors, Gottlieb said, “if they‘re just selling a flavor, I think they might be able to.”

The FDA declined to comment, saying only “The FDA plans to share more on the specific details of the plan and its implementation in the coming weeks,” according to spokeswoman Stephanie Caccomo.

Kyle Doerfler, owner of Liquid Nicotine Wholesalers in Phoenix, says he has been discussing the proposed ban with FDA officials in recent weeks and plans to meet with them in the next month or so. He says the focus is on what’s sold in stores and the agency understands the products can be separated into the flavorings and nicotine liquid, which is widely available but seldom used alone.

Doerfler started his company in 2012 as a wholesale business selling flavored e-liquids with nicotine, as well as separate flavorings and unflavored e-liquid. He now uses an age verification company and sells flavors and e-liquids to consumers with nicotine levels all the way to 0 milligrams.

“(The FDA’s) stance is they’re not regulating the manufacturing sector or the ingredients,” said Doerfler. “That’s not being looked at right now, but that can change at any time.” 

The FDA regulates nicotine but industry officials say they don’t believe it has authority over flavorings that can be added separately. Liquid Nicotine Wholesalers will sell you banana split or apple pie flavoring you can vape with unflavored nicotine or alone if you just want a good taste and the feeling of smoking after years of cigarettes, said Doerfler.

The flavors can be tasted more easily the less nicotine the liquid has, says Jennifer Piera, co-owner of the Vaporfi vape stores in Baltimore and Alexandria, Virginia. Many customers simply continue vaping because they like the taste and it’s hard to stop even when the nicotine is at a very low level.  

“The habit is a big part of why people smoke,” said Piera, who hasn’t smoked and has only vaped in the 15 months since she opened her stores. “It’s something to play with in my hands.”

While vape industry officials warned it would kill a large and important industry that helps people quit the more dangerous habit of smoking, many public health advocates heralded Trump’s announcement.

“For too long, e-cigarette companies have been given the ability to target our nation’s children with candy-flavored, nicotine-loaded products that are addicting a new generation and threatening decades of progress in reducing youth tobacco use,” said Kaiser Permanente CEO Dr. Benjamin Tyson. 

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Young people now use a variety of store-bought, homemade or modified devices to vape and they inhale substances including dealer-bought THC oil that has been linked to most of the recent publicized hospitalizations. That makes industry officials and vaping proponents skeptical the ban will have much effect. 

“Are we not to learn anything from the current THC hash oil acute lung illness situation?,”  asked Jeff Stier, a senior fellow and tobacco harm reduction advocate at the free market Consumer Choice Center. “We don’t want consumers adding stuff to their e-cigs. And we don’t want more sophisticated black market folks doing it.”

Doerfler says the negative anti-vaping rhetoric is “going crazy.” 

“We went from being heroes to villains in the last couple years,” said Doerfler. “I used to have pride in the fact I owned an e-cigarette company.”

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