ELECTRONIC CIGARETTE INDUSTRY GROUP STATEMENT ON SENATE HEALTH COMMITTEE HEARING May 21 2014
TALLAHASSEE, Fla., May 15, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- The Electronic Cigarette Industry Group, Inc., today urged members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee to use the Committee hearing Thursday on electronic cigarettes to constructively stress how electronic cigarettes offer millions of smokers an alternative to the combustible cigarette.
"E-cigarettes should not be regulated the same way traditional tobacco products are regulated," said Eric Criss, president and CEO of ECIG. "E-cigarettes can move existing smokers down the ladder of risk. In this first-ever hearing on electronic cigarettes, ECIG encourages Senators to not perpetuate misconceptions about the manufacture and sale of electronic cigarettes based on misunderstandings that confuse them with combustible cigarettes."
ECIG has commended the Food and Drug Administration for recently issuing deeming regulations that appear to lay the foundation for establishing a nicotine policy that will save millions of lives. "We must not jeopardize the progress that can be achieved by engaging in a destructive, backward-looking debate that attempts to apply old combustible tobacco standards to this new product," Criss added. "The best outcome of this hearing will be to encourage the FDA to finalize common-sense regulation that restricts underage access while treating electronic cigarettes as a distinct new technology -- one that is radically different from combustible cigarettes."
About Electronic Cigarette Industry Group
The Electronic Cigarette Industry Group, Inc. is a non-profit 501c6 association of consumers, manufacturers, importers and distributors of electronic cigarettes. ECIG monitors, reports and responds to federal and state regulatory issues serving as an advocate for the electronic cigarette industry by successfully engaging government officials on behalf of its members.
SOURCE Electronic Cigarette Industry Group
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