Krishnamoorthi said the U.S. is scrutinizing Chinese e-cigarette manufacturers and importers to curb teen use

Dr. Maria Rahmandar has seen the effects of vaping on teens up close while treating teen and young adult patients at Lurie Children’s Hospital.

One patient who stood out was recovering from a fentanyl overdose, she said. But when the teen was taken off the ventilator, he was not in opioid withdrawal.

“It was the nicotine cravings and withdrawal symptoms that bothered him the most,” Rahmandar said. “The nicotine in these products is so strong.”

Critics of smoking say tobacco and e-cigarette companies deliberately encourage teens to take up smoking by offering kid-friendly flavors of everything from a variety of fruits to chewing gum. The CDC estimates that 1.63 million middle and high school students use e-cigarettes.

At a news conference at Lurie Children’s Hospital on Monday, U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Illinois) announced a new initiative to combat illegal e-cigarette products.

Chinese manufacturers and American importers have been asked to provide information about their practices to the U.S. House of Representatives special committee on strategic competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, on which Krishnamoorthi is the ranking Democrat.

“Hundreds of illegal e-cigarette and e-cigarette products, often marketed to young people with flashy packaging and advertising, are still readily available on the market despite a lack of approval from the Food and Drug Administration,” Krishnamoorthi said in a statement told the Sun-Times. “This blatant and unlawful attempt to addict our children to nicotine and tobacco products is unacceptable.”

Meanwhile, a majority of Supreme Court justices appeared unconvinced during oral arguments Monday that federal regulators misled companies before blocking them from selling sweet-flavored e-cigarettes after consumption of E -Cigarette use among teenagers had risen sharply.

While other lower courts dismissed lawsuits from e-cigarette companies, the 5th Circuit sided with Dallas-based Triton Distribution. The decision allowed the sale of e-juices such as “Jimmy The Juice Man in Peachy Strawberry” and “Suicide Bunny Mother’s Milk and Cookies,” which are heated with an e-cigarette to create an inhalable aerosol.

While the committee’s investigation will focus on products developed in China, Krishnamoorthi is also pushing for the FDA to do more to combat e-cigarettes. While the agency has banned flavored vapes, he said companies have exploited loopholes in the regulation to keep their products on shelves. For example, the ban does not apply to disposable vapor products.

Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said these loopholes make it difficult to figure out what is illegal, making it harder to remove illegal products from shelves.

“The real reason people hate government most of the time is because they see it as ineffective and full of excuses,” he said at the news conference. “Why is this so difficult?”

Dart praised the investigation into Chinese-backed products and encouraged the federal government to go further.

Rahmandar said regulations and rules are only as good as their enforcement. It is crucial to act now, she said, to avoid the mistakes of the past and prevent the health consequences from becoming even more drastic.

“We don’t have to wait decades to find out all the terrible health effects before taking action, as we do with traditional cigarettes,” Rahmandar said.

Contribution: The Associated Press