The FDA is responsible for the sudden rise in teens vaping e-cigarettes, former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg said Tuesday in an interview on “CBS This Morning.”
The former mayor, whose non-profit Bloomberg Philanthropies has pledged $160 million to stop teen vaping, was asked if he blames the FDA.
“Yes is the answer to your question,” Bloomberg responded.
"You don't let the public do something while the science says it's probably bad for you and you're in the middle of conducting research," he added. "Wait until you do the research. If it's no problem, no harm, no foul."
Bloomberg appeared on the program alongside Matthew Myers, the president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.
"The most important thing to understand is in this country we have 3.6 million kids who are using these products. Over a quarter of them are addicted," Myers said.
"Most of them would never have used any tobacco product. We know that heavy doses of nicotine for those young people increases their risk of disease, increases their risk of smoking in the future and has a long-term harmful effect on their developing brain ... what we know is for our young people, who have never used any product, this product is harmful."
The two said that their primary goal is to ban flavored e-cigarettes.
"All of the evidence shows that the kids like the flavors. That's the reason they do it when you talk to them. They don't smoke the products that don't have the flavors," Bloomberg said.
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