I am a mother of four who has spent more than 25 years delivering babies and caring for women across Virginia. Through my work with a nonprofit group advocating for healthy children, I spend a lot of time thinking about what it means to truly protect children, not just at birth, but throughout their lives. So when I learned about a new synthetic chemical quietly making its way into vapes made in China that are marketed to our children, I could not stay quiet about it. As a mother and a doctor, I was unsettled.
To set the scene for parents who are unaware of the current illegal Chinese Communist Party vaping market, these products are not being made for adults. The vapes flooding in from Chinese manufacturers come in cotton candy, watermelon, and gummy bear flavors. They are packaged in bright colors with cartoonish designs. Some of them even have video games built right into the device, so a child can play while they vape. It’s a deliberate marketing strategy that’s been working. These products are engineered to feel fun and harmless to a child. And once I learned about a new chemical that evades Food and Drug Administration regulations, it made the whole picture a lot more troubling.
There is a new synthetic compound that CCP vape manufacturers are pivoting to called 6-methyl nicotine. You may see it marketed under names like Nixodine, Metatine, or NIC-SAFE. It is highly addictive and produces effects on the brain nearly identical to conventional nicotine. A National Institutes of Health-published study found that human respiratory cells were more sensitive to 6-methyl nicotine than to conventional nicotine, with researchers identifying more than 1,200 differentially expressed cancer-related proteins in cells exposed to the analog. A separate study confirmed it delivers the same addictive effects as nicotine using a 3D human respiratory model. The bottom line is that this chemical hooks children just like nicotine does, and we do not yet have decades of research telling us what else it does to the body.
What I find especially troubling is that this compound was not an accident. Synthetic nicotine analogs were engineered specifically to fall outside the FDA‘s current regulatory authority. Products containing it can be labeled “nicotine-free,” which means they bypass the safety review process. Chinese manufacturers already hold the patent on the synthesis process, and the supply chain for synthetic nicotine analogs is already scaling.
I also want parents to know that there are well-funded groups working to support CCP fake nicotine. An investigative report found the Vapor Technology Association, which pressures federal regulators to stop enforcement of illegal Chinese vapes, has a long-standing relationship with Chinese manufacturing interests and has taken significant sums from the Chinese manufacturers.
The parents I work with are doing everything to keep their children safe. They are having hard conversations with their children to protect them from these threats. Thankfully, the Trump administration has taken action to protect our children from this growing threat that no previous administration was willing to do.
President Donald Trump has treated illegal CCP vaping products as a genuine public health emergency and enforced accordingly. The results have been significant. The Department of Health and Human Services and Customs and Border Protection seized 4.7 million illegal electronic cigarettes worth $86.5 million in one of the largest operations of its kind in American history. The Drug Enforcement Administration’s Operation Vape Trail swept up 2.3 million more illicit vapes, 115 firearms, millions in cash, and exposed drug trafficking tunnels hidden inside smoke shops across the country.
AMERICA’S DEADLIEST PRODUCTS ARE LEGAL. THE SAFER ONES ARE IN COURT
The president’s enforcement actions have put genuine pressure on Chinese manufacturers. Pressure must continue, the FDA must act on these synthetic nicotine analogs, and Americans deserve to know that the lobbying group buying primetime ads to protect this industry has been bankrolled by the Chinese manufacturers whose unregulated products are ending up in their children’s hands.
As a mother and a doctor, I believe every child deserves to grow up healthy, strong, and free. That means giving parents the unfiltered facts: Illegal CCP vapes are becoming more dangerous, and the threat to our children has gotten worse. We need Washington to act on stopping China’s synthetic nicotine analogs.
Dr. Siobhan Dunnavant is a senior adviser to Advocates for Healthy Kids and board-certified OB-GYN.