Executive Agencies Section
Tobacco Unit
30 E. Broad Street, 26th Floor
Columbus, OH 43215
Office 614-387-5600 Fax 614-466-97
www.OhioAttorneyGeneral.gov
October 22, 2013
Sharon A. Goodson
PO Box 1971
Rogers, AR 72757
Dear Ms. Goodson:
Your letter to Attorney General DeWine was directed to me for a response. Thank you for your response regarding Attorney General DeWine and 39 other Attorneys General plea to the Food and Drug Administration to act swiftly and issue proposed regulations that will address the advertising, ingredients, and sale to minors of electronic cigarettes (e-. cigarettes). I was happy to read all that you are doing to help protect our youth from the unknown health effects of e-cigarettes. Especially, I applaud you and your company for utilizing child safety caps on all your products. However, as Attorney General DeWine indicated in the letter to the FDA, more needs to be done to protect our youth from the dangers of tobacco products -including regulations on the advertisement of e-cigarettes.
The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (“Tobacco Control Act”) gave the FDA authority to regulate e-cigarettes as tobacco products and extending restrictions on advertising and marketing to youth to e-cigarettes would enable the FDA to safeguard our children from nicotine addiction and other potential health effects of e-cigarettes. As you may know, in enacting the Tobacco Control Act, Congress recognized that nicotine is an addictive drug, and almost all new users of tobacco products are under the age of eighteen; and thus, too young to legally purchase such products. Also, Congress found that children are exposed to substantial and unavoidable tobacco advertising that leads to favorable beliefs about tobacco use, plays a role in leading young people to overestimate the prevalence of tobacco use, and increases the number of our youth who begin to use tobacco. Further, Congress concluded that advertising restrictions would have a positive effect on the smoking rates of our youth, and restrictions are necessary to prevent unrestricted tobacco advertising from undermining legislation prohibiting access to young people.
As indicated in the letter to the FDA, one such advertising restriction that applies to traditional cigarettes and should be extended to e-cigarettes is to prohibit the use of cartoons to advertise e-cigarettes -for such unrestricted advertising undermines legislation that prohibits youth access to tobacco. Thus, regardless of your intent and the origin of the cartoon monkey on your website and t-shirts(1), such advertisement is banned by the FDA from being used to advertise traditional Cigarettes and our letter to the FDA was simply requesting the FDA to have the same advertisement restrictions on e-cigarettes.
E-cigarettes are an increasingly widespread, addictive product that needs to be regulated to protect our youth. The Attorney General is deeply concerned.that e-cigarette manufacturers are engaging in an all-out effort to attract young smokers through aggressive marketing campaigns and candy-flavored products. It resembles cigarette marketing of years past with the use of television and radio commercials, celebrity endorsements, cartoon pitchmen, and themes that appeal to our youth. Plus, these products contain kid-friendly candy flavoring, such as bubble gum, cotton candy, and gummy bear. Even on your Company’s website it was alarming to see such flavoring as cotton candy, Dragon’s breath, Funky Monkey Dew, KingKola, Monkey Tarts and Rabid Monkey(2). The Tobacco Control Act gives the FDA authority to ban such flavors, and in September of 2009, these flavors were banned from cigarettes. The time is now to also ban these youth-enticing candy flavors in other tobacco products like e-cigarettes.
Currently there are no national regulations prohibiting the sale of e-cigarettes to our youth and no advertising or flavoring restrictions. Attorney General DeWine has asked the FDA to exercise its authority and regulate the use by and marketing to children of e-cigarettes. Further, even though your letter indicated steps that you have taken regarding marketing and advertising I hope you would consider taking further advertisement restrictions like discontinuing the use of the cartoon monkey in the advertisement of your e-cigarette products.
Thank you again for your letter, and I hope we all can work together to protect our youth from a lifelong addiction to nicotine and the unknown health effects of e-cigarettes.
Very respectfully yours,
Carol V. Mosholder
Tobacco Counsel, Tobacco Enforcement Unit
1 See ejuicemonkeys.com/index.php?main page=index&cPath=95
2 See ejuicemonkeys.com/index.php?main page=index&cPath=6 7&sort=20a&page=9