“The Food and Drug Administration earlier this month fired dozens of staffers responsible for going after retailers who illegally sell tobacco to minors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now it\u2019s begging them to come back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Senior FDA officials asked laid-off employees in recent days to temporarily return after mass cuts decimated the agency\u2019s ability to penalize retailers that sell cigarettes and vapes to minors, four federal health officials familiar with the matter said.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
…<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Without aggressive federal oversight, stores would face far less incentive to turn away underage buyers. That could open the door to a reversal in youth tobacco use rates, experts said, undercutting the fight against chronic disease that Kennedy has vowed to make the centerpiece of his agenda. The civil penalties office also served as a key tool in combating growing sales of illicit vapes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
People who smoke cigarettes, use e-cigarettes or other tobacco products primarily begin before they turn 18, research shows, elevating their risk for a range of chronic diseases like lung cancer and heart disease.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
…<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“It remains unclear why HHS gutted the office focused on civil penalties, which is known within FDA\u2019s tobacco enforcement apparatus as the Division of Business Operations. The Center for Tobacco Products is funded entirely by user fees paid by industry, meaning the terminations won\u2019t create any taxpayer savings. Instead, officials said, it may end up costing money; the fines that the FDA collects from retailers are funneled directly to the federal treasury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kennedy, who has singled out smoking as particularly detrimental to Americans\u2019 health, argued in a recent CBS News interview that all the jobs eliminated across HHS were either administrative or deemed redundant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn some cases, we cut programs, but we only did that when we consolidated them into another program,\u201d he said. \u201cSo the task will continue, their mission will continue. The people are still there for the most part.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yet within the FDA, the officials said the cuts effectively collapsed its tobacco enforcement operation.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n