WASHINGTON, D.C., Nov. 12, 2014 – Today, the American Vaping Association, a leading advocate for the benefits of vaping products such as electronic cigarettes, is calling on FDA Commissioner Dr. Margaret A. Hamburg to retract and apologize for false and slanderous comments she made in an interview published yesterday by Medscape.
“These products are flavored. You can buy mint Oreo-flavored e-cigarettes and other flavors that are clearly targeted to attract children,” said Hamburg.
Gregory Conley, president of the American Vaping Association, quit smoking over four years with a watermelon-flavored e-cigarette. Conley slammed the false allegations as being harmful to public health, saying:
“Does the FDA Commissioner have any concern for the health and well-being of America’s 40 million adult smokers? If so, she should stop twisting the facts in an effort to justify her agency’s effort to overreach on its regulatory power and block this innovative and disruptive technology that stands to put Big Tobacco out of business in the next 20 years.
“Newsflash to Dr. Hamburg and others at the FDA: Adults like flavors. Indeed, a major published study that surveyed nearly 5,000 adult e-cigarette users — the vast majority of whom reporting quitting smoking with vaping — found that fruits and sweets were the most widely used flavors.
“The FDA posed numerous questions regarding flavors to those making public comment on the agency’s proposed e-cigarette regulations. It appears that any time spent answering those questions was wasted, as the top official at the FDA has already decided that flavors need to be eliminated.
“Thousands of small businesses across the United States sell flavored vaping products to adult smokers and ex-smokers. These business have no connections to Big Tobacco, and yet Dr. Hamburg somehow thinks it is appropriate to outright accuse these companies of marketing their products to children.
“FDA regulation of e-cigarettes as ‘tobacco products’ is not needed to keep e-cigarettes out of the hands of youth. Forty-one states have enacted common sense bans on the sale of e-cigarettes to minors. We expect that number will reach fifty in 2015. Instead of protecting youth, the FDA’s proposed rules would instead protect Big Tobacco from competition by removing over 99% of e-cigarette products from the market.
“Dr. Hamburg should immediately retract her statement and apologize to the thousands of small business owners that she falsely accused of marketing to children.”
You can learn more about AVA and vaping by visiting the AVA website.
About the American Vaping Association
The American Vaping Association is a nonprofit organization that advocates for fair and sensible regulation of vapor products, otherwise known as electronic cigarettes, with the goal of maximizing the number of adult smokers who use these products to quit smoking. The AVA was founded by Gregory Conley, a consumer and industry advocate with a long track record of advocating for vapor products dating back to 2010.
We are dedicated to educating the public and government officials about public health benefits offered by vapor products, which are battery-powered devices that heat a liquid nicotine or nicotine-free solution and create an inhalable vapor. The AVA is not a trade group and does not speak for any particular businesses, including our industry sponsors.
You can learn more about AVA and vaping by visiting the AVA website. You can also find us on Facebook and Twitter.
