U.S. regulators will soon begin using a now-closed loophole to crack down on vaping companies, including a range of fruit-flavored e-cigarettes that have become the go-to choice for teens.

Under a law that took effect Thursday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration could regulate e-cigarettes and similar products that use synthetic nicotine.

The action targets Puff Bar and several other vaping companies that have recently switched their formulations to lab-made nicotine to circumvent FDA regulation.

The change enables the FDA to protect public health from tobacco products regardless of the source of the nicotine, the agency said in a statement Wednesday. Companies must register with the FDA and submit their products for review within 30 days.

Puff Bar did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.

The FDA's action won't automatically ban Puff Bars and similar products. Instead, it puts them under the same regulatory scheme as older e-cigarettes that extract nicotine from tobacco.

“Synthetic nicotine products don’t necessarily go away on their own,” said Robin Koval, chief executive of the Truth Initiative, an advocacy group that runs anti-tobacco advertising. "The FDA will have to decide how they want to enforce it, and hopefully they will."

The FDA has been reviewing a range of applications for vaping devices, formulations and flavors — rejecting more than a million, often because of their potential appeal to young people. Anti-tobacco advocates hope the agency will quickly do the same with any filings from Puff Bar and other manufacturers.

Nicotine, an addictive chemical for smoking and vaping, occurs naturally in the tobacco plant.

The 2009 law first gave the FDA oversight over cigarettes and related products, referring only to tobacco-based nicotine. That leaves an opportunity for artificial nicotine, which is used in e-cigarette liquids, nicotine pouches and other products.

Last month, Congress passed language clarifying that the FDA can regulate nicotine in any form, regardless of its source.

Since its launch in 2019, the Puff Bar has grown to become the most popular e-cigarette for teens and is currently sold in flavors such as Blueberry, Strawberry Banana and Mango. Under pressure from the FDA, the company said it would stop sales in 2020, pulling its single-use vaping devices from convenience stores, gas stations and vaping stores.

In February last year, the company announced a brand new color device that uses synthetic nicotine.

The company says in marketing language that its products do not contain tobacco or anything derived from tobacco. This puts Puff Bar in a legal gray area, as federal, state and local restrictions almost always apply to tobacco products, not nicotine itself.

Researchers at Stanford University last year uncovered synthetic nicotine products sold through online platforms that ban tobacco sales, such as Amazon, eBay and Target. Under the new law, synthetic nicotine will be subject to the same federal age restrictions and sales restrictions as other tobacco products.

Using synthetic nicotine is not a new idea. Tobacco companies experimented with chemically derived nicotine as early as the 1960s, but felt it was too expensive for mass production. Manufacturing advancements in recent years have finally made it a viable alternative to tobacco-derived nicotine.

A major government survey last year showed that Puff Bar has surpassed well-known brands as the top choice among high school students who vape. Juul — widely blamed for initially sparking the teen vaping trend — was the fourth most popular brand.

In 2020, the FDA restricted the flavors of cartridge-based e-cigarettes like Juul to only menthol and tobacco, often preferred by adults. But the flavor ban does not apply to single-use e-cigarettes, such as Puff Bars and other types of vaping devices.

Anti-tobacco groups worry that no matter which product makes progress in children, the FDA is always a step or two behind.

“The lesson we can all learn from this is that when FDA action is incomplete and it happens after the fact—as is often the case with e-cigarettes—you’re always going to be whack-a-mole and chasing,” Kowal said.

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