Title: Efforts to Stop the Sale of Thousands of Unauthorized E-Cigarette
Products

Description: New tobacco product must first be approved by the Food and
Drug Administration (FDA) before being sold in the United States.
Despite this requirement, there are thousands of unapproved e-cigarette
products and devices being sold. We learn about this issue and efforts
to combat it from GAO's Triana McNeil.

Related work: GAO-26-107991, Combatting Illicit Substances: DOJ
Enforcement of Unauthorized E-Cigarettes

Released: March 2026

{Music}

[Triana McNeil:] It's a huge problem. There are over 6,000 different
types of e-cigarettes being sold in the U.S. right now. The FDA has only
approved 39.

[Holly Hobbs:] Welcome to GAO's Watchdog Report, your source for
fact-based, nonpartisan news and information from the U.S. Government
Accountability Office--I'm your host, Holly Hobbs. For a new tobacco
product to be sold here in the U.S., it must first be approved by the
Food and Drug Administration or FDA. But there are a large number of
unapproved electronic cigarette products and devices being sold here.
We'll learn more about this issue and efforts to stop these sales from
GAO's Triana McNeil. Thanks for joining us!

[Triana McNeil:] Thank you for having me.


[Holly Hobbs:] So Triana, how big of a problem is this?

[Triana McNeil:] It's a huge problem. There are over 6,000 different
types of e-cigarettes on the market being sold in the U.S. right now.
The FDA has only approved 39. So there are thousands out there. We have
no idea what's in them, but we do know who uses them. A lot of youth are
using these. And it's affecting not only the potential for addiction
issues in the future, but it impairs their learning, their
concentration, their memory. And it also has a number of other harmful
health effects. It can inflame the lungs. And in 2020, 68 people died in
the U.S. because there were some e-cigarettes that had vitamin E
acetate--unknown to the users. And so the fact that there's thousands of
these products being sold in the U.S., and many of them are being
consumed by our children, that's a problem.

[Holly Hobbs:] So what happens if you get caught selling an unauthorized
e-cigarette? Like, what's the range of things that could happen?

[Triana McNeil:] There are a number of different enforcement actions
that the DOJ takes. So, there's this bad list, right? Sellers that are
selling and pushing these things out. The 6,000 that are unauthorized,
unapproved. They might get put on a list. And if you get put on that
list, U.S. Postal Service may not deliver your e-cigarettes to your
establishment. And there's also, like, watchful eyes on you. You can
also get hit with fines. You can get hit with criminal charges. You can
get your assets seized. So, there's a variety of different enforcement
actions that have been taken.

[Holly Hobbs:] Do we know how often action has been taken?   

[Triana McNeil:] Very limited. So, from 2022 to 2024, it's been less
than 20 a year. There was a jump in 2025 to I think like 58 actions. But
again, that pales in comparison when there's over 6,000 of these
unauthorized products being sold in the U.S. And the big jump in 2025
happened because states started flagging them and reporting them to the
DOJ, which I'm really excited about.

[Holly Hobbs:] I don't understand--if it's such a big problem, why has so
little been done?

[Triana McNeil:]  We have an ongoing review looking at the FDA's role in
this process. When we reviewed the DOJ and the DOJ enforcement actions,
they told us they really rely on the FDA to make the referrals, and then
that triggers them to do their investigations and to do enforcement
actions. This past year, they got a lot of input from states. So, I
think the DOJ leveraging not only FDA referrals, but also information
coming from the eyes and ears at the local level--from the states and
localities--is going to be very helpful moving forward.

[Holly Hobbs:] Is FDA or the Department of Justice assessing its efforts
in any way?

[Triana McNeil:]  Not that we're aware of. There is a relatively new
task force that involves a number of different law enforcement, and they
kind of took a pause at the beginning of the Trump administration. They
now have picked things back up. And I think in our ongoing review, we're
going to be looking at: what are their goals? What's definition of
success? How will they know? How are they tracking if they're meeting
those goals and if their efforts are successful? So again, let's focus
on moving forward. Let's see what we learn in our ongoing review. And I
think we'll have more to share then.

[Holly Hobbs:] Last question for you.

[Triana McNeil:]  Mmm-hmm?

[Holly Hobbs:] What's the bottom line of this report?

[Triana McNeil:] It's not candy. These are dangerous. And a lot of
children are using them. And there's a light at the end of the tunnel
for me with this task force, with the states getting more involved. So
I'm hopeful that more is going to be done in the future. But this has
got to be a piece of work that we do. And just continue to monitor and
watch the FDA, CBP, DOJ, states, localities. So that's what we're going
to be focused on moving forward.

[Holly Hobbs:] Triana, thanks for your time.

[Triana McNeil:] Thank you.

{Music}

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