The Food and Drug Administration has proposed new measures to prevent youth from using flavored tobacco products and to eventually ban mentholated cigarettes. In a statement released Thursday, FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb said newly released data concerning the rise of e-cigarette use among teens shocked his conscience.

“In July 2017, I made clear my concerns about kids’ use of e-cigarettes, especially those products marketed with obviously kid-appealing flavors. At the time, however, the trends in youth use appeared to be changing in the right direction,” Gottlieb said.

E-cigarette use among high school students increased 78 percent from 2017 to 2018, with a 48 percent increase among middle school students, according to the FDA and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Gottlieb called it an epidemic.

However, Vape On! owner Tod Yarbrough said the steps laid out by the FDA don’t make that much sense. Specifically, the requirement that some products be sold in “age-restricted, in-person locations.”

In Gottlieb’s statement, he said electronic nicotine delivery systems with a tobacco, mint or menthol flavor are currently exempt from the FDA’s new policy. However, those in “kid-friendly” flavors or packaging, such as fruit flavors or packaging with images of food on it, would need to be kept in age-restricted areas.

Yarbrough, whose shop is in Madison, said the FDA’s definition of age-restricted could pose a problem, as it generally meant having “someone at the door, checking IDs.” Yarbrough’s store policy is to check the identification of anyone who appears under 27 and is attempting to make a purchase. He will also refuse purchases if he thinks it’s an adult buying for a minor.

That said, “I’m not going to make a mom leave her baby in the car just to come in here and get some juice,” he said.

Yarbrough said he also wonders about how to protect his shop from kids who drive or walk past the store. Is he responsible for them seeing merchandise through the windows, even if they never go inside?

“I’m just trying to use reason,” he said, adding fruit and other food-flavored ENDS products are a “vast majority” of his business.

In the end, though, he doesn’t expect the new FDA restrictions to have much, if any, negative effect on his business.

Gottlieb said in his statement the FDA would be working to identify heightened measures for age verification and other restrictions for online sales, but Vape On! does not sell ENDS online.

Yarbrough, who opened the store shortly after his own transition to vaping six years ago, said if anything, the potential ban on flavored cigars and menthol cigarettes might mean more adult customers seeking their preferred flavor of nicotine delivery.

“We opened this business to help people stop smoking, and that’s what we’ve kept our goal to,” he said.