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News Release October 29, 2010 For Immediate Release Contact: (510) 622-4500

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Electronic Cigarette Maker Agrees to Stop Marketing to Minors

OAKLAND - Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. today announced a settlement to prevent Smoking Everywhere, one of the country's largest electronic cigarette sellers, from targeting minors and claiming that its products are a safe alternative to smoking.

"Smoking Everywhere aimed ads at minors and falsely claimed its products were safe," Brown said. "This settlement stops the company from marketing these addictive products to kids or claiming they aren't dangerous."

Electronic cigarettes, or e-cigarettes, are battery-operated devices with nicotine cartridges designed to look and feel like conventional cigarettes. Instead of actual smoke, e-cigarettes produce a vapor from the nicotine cartridge that is inhaled by the user.

Smoking Everywhere and other electronic cigarette makers have claimed that e-cigarettes are safe because they contain no carcinogens or tar, and produce no second-hand smoke.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), however, found that some electronic cigarettes contain a variety of dangerous chemicals, including nicotine, carcinogens such as nitrosamines, and one brand also contained diethylene glycol, commonly known as antifreeze.

Some e-cigarettes come in strawberry, chocolate, mint, banana and cookies-and-cream flavors designed to appeal to a young audience.

Today's settlement prohibits Smoking Everywhere from marketing to minors and from making false or misleading claims about electronic cigarettes. Specifically, the company has agreed that it will not:

- Market or sell electronic cigarettes to minors. Its website will be age-restricted, and a customer will need to show a government-issued ID. Retail products will be behind a counter. Advertising must note the age restriction.

- Sell flavored electronic cigarette cartridges such as strawberry, mint or bubblegum that could appeal to minors.

- Advertise its products as a smoking cessation device unless the FDA approves them for that purpose.

- Claim that its products are safer than cigarettes or contain no tobacco, tar or carcinogens, and produce no second-hand smoke unless there is competent reliable scientific evidence to support the claims.

Smoking Everywhere also agreed to implement quality control standards to eliminate harmful substances in its products and submit to independent audits.

Smoking Everywhere will also provide a Proposition 65 warning that its products contain nicotine, a chemical known to be addictive and to cause birth defects or reproductive harm. The warning must appear on product packaging, Smoking Everywhere's website and at retail sites.

Smoking Everywhere and its owner will pay $170,000 in penalties and fees.

A copy of the consent judgment is attached.

# # # Related Attachments

E-Cigarettes

The Smoke-Free Marin Coalition position on E-Cigarettes

“The Smoke-Free Marin Coalition does not endorse e-cigarettes, E-cigars or e-pipes as nicotine delivery devices since they have not been proven to be a healthy alternative to conventional tobacco products, according to scientific evidence.”

Question: Are E-Cigarettes, short for “electronic cigarettes” safe to use, or hazardous to human health, even though a federal court ruled (January 14, 2010) that the Food and Drug Administration cannot regulate E-Cigarettes? 

Websites developed by the E-cigarette industry, claim that these are health products.  The Smoke-Free Marin Coalition suggests that consumers do their research beyond the industry’s claims. Consumers should make informed choices by reading the public health perspective on E-Cigarettes.  E-cigarettes are illegal, for health and safety reasons, in several countries, including Brazil, Australia, Hong Kong and Canada.  According to a New York Times (June 1, 2009) article, E-cigarette users inhale liquid nicotine and propylene glycol, a liquid that is used in anti-freeze solutions and in brake and hydraulic fluids. The material data safety sheet for propylene glycol states that chronic exposure of that substance may cause “reproductive and fetal effects,” “central nervous system depression,” damage to cell membranes, and possible seizures.

E-cigarettes also:

  • Undermine smoke-free policy efforts;
  • Sustain the “normalization of smoking” which is in the interests of the industry, not the consumer;
  • Appeal to techno-oriented youth;   
  • Delay quit attempts.

The Smoke-Free Marin Coalition suggests that consumers wanting to learn more about E-Cigarettes, in order to make an informed decision, check out the following websites, provided here for your convenience:

1. American Cancer Society:  http://www.cancer.org/docroot/NWS/content/NWS_1_1x_E-Cigarettes_Contain_Toxins_FDA_Analysis_Shows.asp

2. American Lung Association: http://www.lungusa.org/press-room/press-releases/e-cigarettes-action.html

3. Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids: http://www.tobaccofreekids.org/Script/DisplayPressRelease.php3?Display=1189

4. Americans for Non-Smokers Rights: http://www.no-smoke.org/learnmore.php?id=645

5. Current FDA Updates Regarding E-Cigarettes: http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/PublicHealthFocus/ucm172906.htm

 

 

 

 

* At the time of this posting, all listings above have no-smoking considerations