Walmart Raises Tobacco Purchase Age to 21 and Discontinues Sweet Flavored Vaping Products

Walmart responded on Wednesday to the heightened concerns about underage use of tobacco by raising the purchase age in its Walmart and Sam's Club stores to 21.Changes are being made after Walmart received a letter from the Food and Drug Administration about its policies falling short to prevent products from being sold to minors.The change goes into effect on July 1 and includes e-cigarettes. Walmart is also discontinuing the sale of fruit and dessert nicotine flavored e-cigarettes and vaping products.Several states have raised the purchase age to 21. In Texas, the legislature is considering a 10% state retail excise tax on e-cigarette and vape tobacco products."There's been a lot of discussion lately about how companies restrict the sales of tobacco to minors," said John Scudder, U.S. chief compliance and ethics officer for Walmart. "While we have implemented a robust compliance program, we are not satisfied with falling short of our company-wide goal of 100% compliance."Walmart sent a letter back to the FDA on Wednesday outlining its new rules.Twitter: @MariaHalkias  Continue reading...

Copyright The Dallas Morning News
Contact Us