Lawmaker calls on FDA to ban marketing of e-cigarettes to children

Washington (April 16, 2015) – Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) released the following statement today after the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released new data today that reveals that the use of the e-cigarette among middle- and high school students tripled from 2013 to 2014, accounting for upwards of 13 percent of high-school students. The new data reports that nearly 2.5 million youth currently use e-cigarettes. 

“E-cigarette use is growing as fast as the students who are using them, but we don’t have the rules in place to ensure that we stop it,” said Senator Markey, a member of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. “Children and teens are getting addicted to nicotine and putting their health and futures at grave risk. We’ve made great strides educating children and teens about the dangers of smoking, and we cannot allow e-cigarettes to snuff out the progress we’ve made preventing nicotine addiction and its deadly consequences. We need to ban the marketing of e-cigarettes to youth, and the FDA needs to finalize its long-overdue proposed deeming regulations that would give it authority to make sure children and teens are protected.”

In February, Senators Markey, Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) introduced the Protecting Children from Electronic Cigarette Advertising Act to prohibit the marketing of e-cigarettes to children and teens. The bill is endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Public Health Association, the American Lung Association, the American Heart Association, the American Association for Cancer Research, the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network and the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids.

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