Consumer Affaors - Bill would outlaw marketing and sales of e-cigarettes to minors

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By Truman Lewis

Congresswoman Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) and five co-sponsors today introduced a measure that would ban companies from selling and marketing e-cigarettes to children. It would also direct the FDA to establish regulations for their safe packaging, doses, and labeling.

"E-cigarette makers think they can take us back to the days of Joe Camel," said Speier. "They are selling nicotine to children in flavors like gummy bear, cotton candy, and chocolate cake. Something is gravely wrong with that picture. The SMOKE Act (Stop Selling and Marketing to Our Kids E-Cigarettes) would establish that e-cigarettes are for adults, not minors, and it would ensure they are safely regulated and packaged so that they can't harm children.

The SMOKE Act would direct the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to prohibit e-cigarette advertising that increases usage of the products by children. It would designate such advertising as an unfair or deceptive practice and vest the FTC and state attorneys-general with authority to prosecute violators and subject them to penalties.

More authority
The act would also give the FDA authority to ban e-cigarette sales to minors. It would require the FDA to establish childproof packaging standards, dosage limits, maximum levels of nicotine concentration, and nicotine concentration labeling requirements.

The bill would mandate a study on the impact that e-cigarette flavorings have on children's use and smoking cessation, requiring the FDA to consider banning or restricting flavorings based on those findings.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has found that e-cigarette use by middle and high school students more than tripled from 2011 to 2013. Lack of child proof packaging has led to an escalating number of e-cigarette-related calls to Poison Control Centers, 51.1 percent of which involved young children, Speier noted.

E-cigarettes contain poisonous and addictive chemicals including nicotine and 5 to 15 times the level of formaldehyde present in regular cigarettes, she said.

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