The US Food and Drug Administration has announced sweeping new restrictions on flavoured tobacco products, including electronic cigarettes popular among teenagers, in an effort to prevent a new generation of nicotine addicts.
The announcement will mean that only tobacco, mint and menthol e-cigarette flavours can be sold at most traditional retail outlets such as convenience stores.
Other fruity or sweet-flavoured varieties can now only be sold at age-restricted stores or through online merchants that use age-verification checks.
The FDA also plans to seek a ban on menthol cigarettes, a longtime goal of public health advocates, as well as flavoured cigars.
FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said the moves are aimed at preventing young people from continuing to use e-cigarettes, potentially leading to traditional cigarette smoking.
"We wont let this pool of kids, a pool of future potential smokers, of future disease and death, to continue to build," he said.
"I will not allow a generation of children to become addicted to nicotine through e-cigarettes."
The agency has faced mounting pressure to act on e-cigarettes amid their increased popularity among US teenagers in recent years.
Data released by the FDA and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed a 78% increase in high school students who reported using e-cigarettes in the last 30 days, compared with the previous year.
More than three million high school students, or more than 20% of all US high school students, used the product, along with 570,000 middle school students, according to the survey.
