American Vaping Association

Advocating for Tobacco Harm Reduction

For Immediate Release

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Contact: Gregory Conley

Tel: 609-947-8059

Email: gconley@vaping.org

For Immediate Release

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AVA Statement on President Trump’s Support for a FDA Flavor Ban

President Trump could sink his reelection efforts with push to harm millions of adult vapers

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, the American Vaping Association, a nonprofit that advocates for sensible regulation of vaping issues, reacted to the Trump Administration’s announcement that the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) will issue compliance policy in the coming weeks that could result in all nicotine vaping products in flavors other than tobacco being pulled from the market.

Gregory Conley, President of the American Vaping Association, released the following statement:

“We are deeply disappointed in the President’s decision to take direction from anti-vaping activists like Mike Bloomberg by attempting to ban the sale of nearly every vaping product on the market. A ban will remove life-changing options from the market that have been used by several million American adults to quit smoking.

 

“In the history of the United States, prohibition has never worked. It didn’t work with alcohol. It hasn’t worked with marijuana. It won’t work with e-cigarettes. The President should meet with just one of the millions of American voters who have used flavors to quit smoking before moving forward on this draconian approach to regulation and public policy.

 

“Destroying thousands of small businesses and sending ex-smokers back to smoking will do nothing to stop drug dealers from selling contaminated THC cartridges. A flavor ban will only lead to the creation of yet another multibillion-dollar black market that will operate with zero safety controls.”

 

The AVA recently published A Guide to Understanding “Vaping-Related” Illnesses & Deaths. This guide highlights several facts about this health crisis (with citations), including that:

 

  • FDA testing of nicotine vaping products has found “nothing unusual,” according to the Washington Post last week.
  • FDA and the New York State Department of Health have found vitamin E acetate, an oil used as a diluent thickener, in only THC products.
  • Emergency room doctors, including one in New York, have stated that young patients are often reluctant to admit to using THC.
  • Multiple state health departments have pointed to illicit THC vaping products as the likely cause these illnesses.
  • Two of the six deaths associated with “vaping” were explicitly linked to THC vaping cartridges by state health departments. Three deaths have no details. In a sixth death, in Los Angeles County, no details of the deceased were released, but the LA County Health Department did state that “nearly all” patients had vaped THC.

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.