Richard Danker resigned from his post as assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services after the Food and Drug Administration authorized fruit-flavored e-cigarettes he said could put children at risk. In a resignation letter to President Donald Trump reviewed by ABC News, Danker said senior agency officials in Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s immediate office approved vape flavors that would expose children to nicotine addiction, lung damage and a higher risk of cancer.
The resignation landed this week, right after the FDA approved four new devices made by Glas, including classic menthol, fresh menthol, gold and sapphire pods. Gold is mango-flavored and sapphire is blueberry-flavored. The move collided with the department's public stance: last week, the FDA said on its website that it continues to prioritize the removal of illicit vapes, including those that target minors.
Danker said the authorization undermines the department's recent guidance on youth risks from flavored nicotine products. He thanked Trump for what he called the honor of a lifetime to serve in both presidential administrations, but said he could not stay after the decision. His resignation also came after former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary left office following a clash with the White House over pressure from Trump to authorize the flavored vapes, according to sources familiar with the matter.
The approval and the resignation sharpen a long-running fight over flavored nicotine products, especially among pediatric groups and advocacy organizations that say fruit and candy-like vapes can hook minors. That fight is now happening inside an administration that has made chronic disease and children's health central to its Make America Healthy Again agenda. An HHS spokesperson said Kennedy is advancing that mission head-on and that political appointees are there to execute it with urgency, discipline and focus.
The agency also said people who lose sight of the mission and the responsibility they were entrusted with are free to move on, a line that made clear how little room there is for dissent inside the department. For now, the question is not whether the policy fight will continue; it is whether the administration can keep selling a children's-health message while approving flavored vapes that critics say undercut it.
