Demand for North Carolina Government to Protect its Citizen's Rights

Currently the presidential administration is considering a nationwide ban of flavored e-liquids with a possible hardware ban following. This petition is designed to have the NC Gov't back their citizens in their choice to vape and allow the continued purchase of flavored e-liquid, vaporizers, and accessories for vaporizers despite the federal bans that may occur.

The vaping industry in NC provides jobs, income for taxes, as well as a healthier alternative to smoking. Research conducted by the Royal College of Physicians has shown that vaping is 95% healthier for you than combustible tobacco. The RCP represents over 35,000 doctors and physicians worldwide. This research and information is a common consensus among them. We, as adults, have a right to choose what we do with our bodies, especially when what we choose to do is in an effort to reduce the harm that we are doing to ourselves.

Every year, tobacco use causes more than 7 million deaths worldwide as well as 480,000 in the United States. For every person that dies from tobacco, 30 live with life long illnesses directly linked to tobacco. (210,000,000 worldwide/14,400,000 in the United States) This costs nearly $170 Billion in direct medical care in adults, in the US alone.

In 1998 a lawsuit was placed against large tobacco companies, led by the states. In the settlement of the suit the states promised to use a portion of the settlement as well as a large portion of their income from the collection of taxes (estimated to be $246 billion over 25 years) on these products to fund Tobacco Prevention Programs. The CDC recommends that each state spends a certain amount on Tobacco Prevention Programs to prevent new smokers as wells as help current smokers to quit. The state of North Carolina collected $450.4 Million from tobacco products last year. The CDC has allocated for NC to spend $99.3 Million; NC spent $2.1 Million on Tobacco Prevention Programs in 2018. This places NC at 43rd for spending that year.

A major concern for most is the possibility of minors purchasing and using these products. Although it is a reality that minors have been able to find the means to purchase them, industry leaders have pushed solutions for this that do not include a ban on flavored e-liquids: The removal of online sales to individuals, removal of these products from convenience stores, and only allowing the sale of these products and licensed retailers.

In 2017 the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and FDA Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) gave a grant to the National Bureau of Economic Research at Yale University to conduct a study about the possibility of a flavored e-liquid ban and the possible effects it may have. An excerpt from that study is as follows:

"Evidence is not yet clear as to the net impact of e-cigarettes on youths. E-cigarettes may attract mainly those youths who would have used combustibles, thus offering relative protection. Alternatively, e-cigarettes may serve as a gateway to the use of combustibles (Gostin and Glasnet, 2014). Surprisingly, it is estimated that most youths (up to 80 percent) "vape" e-cigarettes without nicotine (Meich et al., 2017), which mitigates the concern about the gateway effect, as there is much less risk of nicotine addiction and, perhaps reducing the risk later use of combustibles."

Recent research has shown that the likely cause of the death of these individuals were from vaping black market THC cartridges that contained Vitamin-E Acetate. Vitamin-E Acetate is extracted with a chemical called trimethylhydroquinone. Hydroquinone oil has been known to cause chronic respiratory symptoms through clinical studies conducted in the last several decades. Hydroquinone is typically found in cosmetic products as a "dark spot remover" and the effects of vaporizing this have not been thoroughly studied. However, studies have shown that any lipid in aerosol form can cause buildup in the lungs and can lead to lipoid pneumonia or pneumothorax to occur.

We demand that the state of North Carolina back its citizens against the number one preventable killer in the US. Allow the people to continue what has been attributed as the best alternative to quit smoking freely and do not allow the tobacco companies to continue to distribute poison to the American people. We also are pushing for a ban on the use of all oils in vaporizer products. Reallocate spending into Tobacco Prevention Programs that will help people stay away, quit, and reduce the economic burden on the state and its citizens.

SOURCES:

Policy, RCP. "Nicotine without Smoke: Tobacco Harm Reduction." RCP London, 25 July 2017, www.rcplondon.ac.uk/projects/outputs/nicotine-without-smoke-tobacco-harm-reduction-0.

"Fast Facts | Fact Sheets | Smoking & Tobacco Use | CDC." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/fast_facts/index.htm.

Tobacco Free Kids, Campaign. "North Carolina." Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, 8 Dec. 2018, www.tobaccofreekids.org/what-we-do/us/statereport/north-carolina.

Buckell, John, et al. "Should Flavors Be Banned in E-Cigarettes? Evidence on Adult Smokers and Recent Quitters from a Discrete Choice Experiment." NBER, National Bureau of Economic Research, 28 Sept. 2017, www.nber.org/papers/w23865?fbclid=IwAR0ZyZcybbpYu_ktHFGAdUpPf6nP_B1DyNrPNXb7rK1wmkc0XfNfNrRikUs.

Choudat, D, et al. "Allergy and Occupational Exposure to Hydroquinone and to Methionine." British Journal of Industrial Medicine, U.S. National Library of Medicine, June 1988, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1009615/.