WASHINGTON, D.C. – The American Vaping Association (AVA), a leading advocate for the health benefits of electronic cigarettes, today endorsed legislation by Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and others that would require child-resistant packaging for liquids used in e-cigarettes.
“Sen. Brown and the e-cigarette industry want the same thing: to create safer products that further the government’s goal of reducing tobacco-related disease and death,” said Gregory Conley, AVA’s president. “E-cigarettes help smokers quit the tobacco habit, but they aren’t for children. We urge Congress to pass common-sense laws like Sen. Brown’s that keep them out of kids’ hands.”
In addition to backing Sen. Brown’s legislation – and similar legislation introduced earlier this month by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) — the AVA supports a federal ban on the sale of e-cigarettes to minors. Forty-one states already have such a ban on the books.
The Food and Drug Administration is proposing to classify e-cigarettes as tobacco products. The AVA believes that rule would unnecessarily burden the fast-growing, U.S.-based e-cigarette industry with complicated and expensive regulations. The AVA has called on the FDA to extend its period for public comment about the classification for another three months beyond its current August 8 deadline.
The AVA is concerned that the proposed FDA rules would essentially hand over the e-cigarette market to Big Tobacco at the expense of consumers, public health and small- and medium-sized e-cigarette businesses.
Read AVA’s action alert here: http://vaping.info/ava-action-alert
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.