New York, NY – Assemblymember Linda B. Rosenthal, longtime sponsor of the bill to ban the sale of flavored e-cigarettes, today announced that she will be introducing statewide legislation to prohibit the sale and distribution of electronic cigarettes until they undergo pre-market review by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Though e-cigarettes are now aggressively marketed as an alternative to traditional tobacco products, they are not approved for use as such by the FDA. More than 400 cases of respiratory illness and at least three deaths have been linked to e-cigarette use across the United States.

“Taking a page right out of Big Tobacco’s playbook, the e-cigarette industry has been working aggressively to hook a new generation of users on its addictive and dangerous products, marketing flavors like “unicorn poop” to kids and holding their products out as harm reduction. If Juul and their cronies in the industry are so sure that their products are safe for use as “tobacco harm reduction,” then they should submit those products to the FDA for review as such. With hundreds of cases of mysterious respiratory illness and deaths linked to vaping and very little information about the long-term effects of e-cigarettes, the only reasonable approach is to stop the distribution of e-cigarettes until the FDA says e-cigarettes are safe for use for any reason.”

In addition to this effort to prohibit the distribution of e-cigarettes until the FDA pre-market approval, Assemblymember Rosenthal is the sponsor of current legislation to ban the sale of flavored e-cigarettes, to require warning labels on vape products, two bills (A340 and A341) and to enhance online age-verification processes at point of sale and delivery, A303 to require disclosure of e-cigarette advertising spending and A4365 to prohibit the use of coupons to reduce the price of e-cigarettes.

Rosenthal previously authored laws to ban the sale of e-cigarettes and liquid nicotine to minors, to include e-cigarettes in the State’s Clean Indoor Air Act, to prohibit possession of e-cigarettes on school grounds, and to prohibit the distribution of free e-cigarette samples to minors and to raise the statewide smoking and vaping age to 21 years old.