Electronic Cigarette Ban in New York: Whose interest will New York State Protect?

April 12, 2010 - PRLog -- The New York State legislature is considering a bill that would immediately and completely ban the sale of electronic cigarettes (or e-cigarettes). The New York State Assembly’s bill (A9529) and the Senate’s companion bill (S7234) describe the purpose of the legislation as follows:  “Prohibits the sale of electronic cigarettes to minors; prohibits distribution or sale of any item containing or delivering nicotine that is not defined by law as a tobacco product or approved by the United States food and drug administration for sale as a tobacco use cessation or harm reduction product.” (http://open.nysenate.gov/legislation/api/1.0/html/bill/A9529)

Many smokers are confused about this bill and think that they are being misrepresented by their representatives.

We interviewed several e-cigarette smokers on the matter:

"Anyone can easily see what's happening here. Big tobacco is using lobbying techniques, and is trying to use their power to manipulate our governments assembly and senate to doing their dirty work and stopping any competition in the industry. Hopefully democracy proves to be stronger then capitalism in this matter because there is 4,000,000 of 8,000,000 smokers whose lives will be saved in the next 20 years because of the electronic cigarette, according to a letter written to the FDA from the American Association of Public Health Physicians."

" I spoke to some members of the assembly, several of them were on my side and are voting the bill down, but some of the bill's sponsors were not  even aware of the fact that the bill is going to ban electronic cigarettes. It seemed to me that they thought they were just "Protecting the Kids" by preventing them access to nicotine.  The bill actually bans the sale of any electronic cigarette containing nicotine. I have been using this product for over a year now and I have not thought about going back to tobacco once. It is preposterous that anyone would try to take this away from me."

The representatives claim they want it regulated by the FDA and the FDA has to do their studies. However, they are still legally allowing tobacco cigarettes to be sold and none of these representatives are taking any sort of action against the tobacco products that will remain legal. This does not make too much sense considering tobacco cigarettes kill 400,000+ people per year and e-cigarettes do not. It is also confusing that tobacco cigarettes did not have to go through any rigorous new drug approvals by the FDA, but this bill will make it so the e-cigarette have to abide by standards that tobacco cigarettes do not have to abide by.

If you think this ban is unfair and ethically questionable, please contact your New York state senator and assembly representative to voice your opinion. Don't forget to post the responses from the politicians on the electronic cigarette forums so all electronic cigarette users know what is going on because this could be your state next. State researching and acting now to protect your electronic cigarette freedom.

Here is the link to the New York state assembly member page, you can search your assembly member by zip code. Please do so, tell them about your experience with electronic cigarettes and voice your opinion.
http://assembly.state.ny.us/mem/

Also contact your Senator, we have included the link below which will allow you to search your Senators contact information by Zip Code.
http://www.nysenate.gov/senators