Springfield stores found selling unauthorized vaping products

When putting $10 on pump four and sitting at the register, vaping products stack rows and rows in different colorful patterns right next to the cigarette packs behind the counter.

Some products are safer than others, however.

Thousands of unauthorized vaping products are hitting the shelves of convenience stores weekly in Illinois – and all it takes is a walk down to Circle K on South MacArthur Boulevard and Ash Street for Springfield locals to see for themselves that Breeze and Glas vapes, which are unauthorized by the FDA, are slotted next to FDA approved e-cigs.

“I didn’t know that at all, I had thought all of the ones we’re selling are legal,” one store employee at a Casey’s said. “The only thing I ever knew about was the Juul, there was a time they took them off the shelf … then they put them back on the shelf.”

More:Business migration: Why Springfield's west side flourishes while the east side perseveres

Since 2016, the FDA has been regulating electronic nicotine delivery systems products to determine if they meet public health standards in the law and an assessment of the risk of their use by youth in America.

Several senators including Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, recently sent letters to 22 major convenience stores to cover the legal obligations and liability under the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (P.L. 111-31) to take unauthorized vaping products off shelves.

Two companies who received letters from the senators, Circle K and Casey’s General Stores, have multiple locations across Springfield. The State Journal-Register went to two of each convenience store to see if unauthorized vapes were available on shelves. The listed items are by brand and products can differ by disposables to cartridges and coils used inside the e-cig.

The focus area took place on one store in the west side, one store in the north side and two stores on the east side of Springfield, to cover city districts fairly in marginalized areas, where historically tobacco and nicotine brands have marketed more.

Authorized by the FDA: N-Joy products, Vuse electronics

Not Authorized by FDA, have been issued warnings: Glas Vapes, Breeze bars

Authorized by FDA: Vuse electronics, N-Joy products

Not Authorized by FDA, have been issued warnings: Blu bars, Leap Vapor

Authorized by FDA: N-Joy products, Vuse electronics

Not Authorized by FDA, have been issued warnings: Breeze bars, Glas Vapes, Blu bars

Authorized by FDA: N-Joy products, Vuse electronics

Not Authorized by FDA, have been issued warnings: Blu bars

Each store marketed and sold Juul, which was denied authorization by the FDA on July 5, 2022. In June of the same year, the FDA banned the highly-popular vaping product; but the agency has put an administrative hold on the ban until it can review the business' application again. While the FDA has not lifted the ban, until the agency finishes its review, Juul continues to be sold with unflavored vaping pods in 2024.

In January of 2020 the FDA released a guide on decisions on enforcement by the government agency; which identified flavored products with colorful packaging and sweet flavors to appeal to youth as a top priority alongside vaping products which never submit an application to be authorized.

Vapor products targeted towards teenagers and youth has been a hotbed of controversy due to the predatory design of certain products. Elf Bar has smaller colorful packaging with a puff and ditch design to be disposed, as small as four inches. An Elf Bar can fit in palms and deliver 20 to 50 milligrams per milliliter, up from the 10-12 milligrams found in cigarettes.

In a 2023 survey on national youth tobacco use, Elf-Bar was the most commonly used e-cig in the industry, followed by Funky Republic vapes, Kangvape, Cali bars and Breeze; which all were cited as popular among youth crowds for their disposable discreet packaging, fruit or sweet flavors and design.

“I feel like younger people see Vuses as more flavorful other than cigarettes you know what I mean?” another Casey’s employee said. “Because they can’t buy cigarettes and they don’t like smoking cigarettes, they say cigarettes are bad for you so you think ‘alright, I’ll just go get the flavorful instead.’”

Out of the 6.7 million tobacco products submitted in 2020 to be authorized, mostly disposable and reusable ENDS products, as of January of this year only 23 E-cigarettes are authorized by the FDA for safe consumption of the public. A list of the authorized products can be found on the FDA website; Logic Technology Development LLC, N-Joy LLC and R.J. Reynolds Vapor Company (which produces Vuse vapes) were the authorized distributors of vaping products.

If such products are not removed from the market, the FDA issues a warning letter to the recipient and a waiting period of response before initiating enforcement action such as civil money penalties, seizure, or injunctions on the distributor.

By December 2023, the FDA had issued more than 400 warning letters to retailers for the sale of unauthorized e-cigarettes and filed civil money penalty complaints against more than 65 retailers and manufacturers for the manufacture or sale of the products. Civil Money Penalties for failing to obtain the required marketing authorization cannot exceed the maximum of $20,678 for a single violation.

“We sell what Circle K makes us sell,” one Circle K employee said. “Our company is from Canada so they’re a little bit different than here in the U.S. of course; what they put in the system for us to sell is what we sell.”

Despite best efforts from the FDA and advocacy from multiple senators, a trip to the gas station in Springfield will still see unregulated vaping products sold on shelves, until further authority from the FDA makes headway.

Names of employees were removed for fear of retaliation from management within respective companies.

Contact Claire Grant at [email protected], X (Formerly known as Twitter): @Claire_Granted