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Support independent investigative journalism.Attorney General Maura Healey on Tuesday proposed banning the sale of e-cigarettes to people younger than 18 and subjecting the devices to the same sales restrictions applied to traditional cigarettes.The regulations, which Healey can put into effect after seeking public comment, would help standardize practices around the state, where Boston and 151 other municipalities, representing nearly two-thirds of the population, have enacted age-based limits on e-cigarettes.The rules would also bring Massachusetts in line with much of the rest of the country: 42 states already ban e-cigarette sales to minors.Massachusetts regulations currently do not address e-cigarettes, which are slender tubes used to inhale a nicotine-laden vapor.Introduced several years ago, they have grown in popularity, prompting tobacco companies to enter the market.But they have also raised safety concerns.The Food and Drug Administration is in the process of developing national regulations.

Thank you for signing up!Sign up for more newsletters here At a State House press conference, Healey said, “These regulations make it clear that in Massachusetts, an e-cigarette is a cigarette when it comes to protecting our kids.” Healey will accept public comments via e-mail (AGOregulations@state.ma.us) through April 24, and hold a public hearing April 23, with plans to enact the regulations a month or two after that.The rules would prohibit promotional giveaways, outlaw sales in any manner other than a face-to-face exchanges, require e-cigarettes to be kept in a location accessible only to store employees, and require e-cigarette retailers to take measures to prevent sales to minors.Child-proof packaging would be required for nicotine-laced liquids or gels used in the devices.E-cigarettes would be allowed in vending machines only in locales that bar children.With many of these products sold online, Healey acknowledged enforcing age restrictions may be difficult.The regulations allow adults to purchase online and require online sellers to verify the ages of buyers.

E-cigarettes are battery-powered devices that heat, but do not burn, a liquid containing nicotine derived from tobacco.E-cigarette proponents say the devices provide a safer alternative for cigarette smokers, without the hazards of inhaled and secondhand smoke.But opponents say they are a way to recruit teens into nicotine addiction and note that their safety has not been established.Many e-cigarettes are infused with sweet flavors, such as “banana split” and “bubble gum.”“Much of the e-cigarette marketing that we see today is basically a page out of the playbook of big tobacco companies from years ago,” Healey said.e cigarette rive sud“Use of cartoons, and playful, colorful figures and characters is what we see.e zigarette siegenFlavors like cinnamon burst, watermelon, and menthol ice.e cigarette share price

. . . It’s clear to me the demographic that some of these manufacturers are looking to market to.”A survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that between 2011 and 2012, e-cigarette use more than doubled among high schoolers; the number who reported using an e-cigarette at least once in the previous month increased from 4.7 percent to 10 percent.Carly K. Caminiti, project manager for Health Resources in Action, a public health advocacy group in Boston, said some teenagers don’t realize products labeled as “mango” or “strawberry” contain nicotine and may be lured into a lifelong addiction without knowing it.But Jennifer Borucki, a 40-year-old resident of Arlington who attended the press conference, said that e-cigarettes enabled her to kick a 27-year cigarette habit.e cigarette top tenShe said she puffs on her e-cigarette occasionally, avoiding smoke altogether and inhaling much less nicotine.A member of the Consumer Advocates for Smoke-free Alternatives Association, Borucki said her group supports restrictions on sales to children but opposes high taxes and other stringent measures that would make it hard for adults to use the product.e cigarette taking over

“If anything,” she said, “e-cigarettes are moving people away from cigarettes.”Four e-cigarette makers said they, too, support restrictions on sales to children.They included blu eCigs and Altria, which owns the e-cigarette maker Nu Mark.“In terms of restricting sales to minors, we could not agree more,” said Jeff Holman, chief executive of Vapor Corp.He said his company sells fruit- and chocolate-flavored e-cigarettes because they appeal to adults, just as flavored liqueurs do.Representative Jeffrey Sanchez, a Jamaica Plain Democrat, and Senator Harriette Chandler, a Worcester Democrat, welcomed Healey’s rules as “a big first step.” Sanchez and others have proposed legislation that would codify into law Healey’s restrictions, and also ban public and workplace use of e-cigarettes.e cigarette ulverstonNatalie McGill It was a 2009 complaint to a New Jersey local health official from a resident about seeing smoking inside of a mall that set the state Legislature on a path to electronic cigarette regulations.

While the complaint turned out to involve e-cigarettes, not tobacco, it raised awareness of the state’s existing Smoke Free Air Act, which banned cigarette use indoors.In 2010, state lawmakers were prompted to ban people from using e-cigarettes inside public places.“It raised awareness that this was a new technology of an old problem,” said Mary O’Dowd, MPH, New Jersey’s state health commissioner.“To the credit of those (legislators) at the time, they quickly incorporated it into our existing law so that this was not a way to get around the law.” Dozens of states are passing legislation to regulate e-cigarettes as the Food and Drug Administration continues its quest to gain authority over the products.In April 2014, FDA proposed a rule that would extend its regulatory authority over unregulated tobacco products, such as e-cigarettes and water pipe tobacco — also known as hookah.The rule, still yet to be finalized, would allow FDA to create and enforce regulations, such as age restrictions on use of newly deemed or regulated products.

In the meantime, states have taken up the charge, with New Jersey being one of 40 states that prohibit e-cigarette sales to minors, according to a November Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report study of state laws from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Thirty-six states will not sell to anyone younger than 18 and four states will not sell to anyone younger than 19.A customer fills an e-cigarette vaporizer with oil on Jan.28 at a store in San Rafael, California.California is one of a growing number of states with regulations in place regarding e-cigarettes.Photo by Justin Sullivan, courtesy Getty Images That leaves approximately 16 million children under 18 who can legally purchase e-cigarettes, the study said.That statistic is troubling to some public health officials, considering the increasing number of young adults using the products.According to a February Nicotine and Tobacco Research study, the number of U.S.youth in grades six through 12 who used e-cigarettes between 2011 and 2013 more than tripled, from 79,000 to 263,000 people.

“We still have 10 states (and the District of Columbia) where it’s not even prohibited,” said Tim McAfee, MD, MPH, senior medical officer for CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health.“It’s perfectly legal for a 13-year-old to be sold an e-cigarette.And in most states that have passed laws making it illegal to sell to minors, the enforcement provisions are far weaker than those for cigarettes.” Even in states where sales of e-cigarettes are prohibited to minors, youths may still be able to buy them online.A March study in JAMA Pediatrics found youth in North Carolina — a state that prohibits sales to minors —could easily purchase e-cigarettes on the Internet.As of March, only Minnesota and North Carolina had some form of tax on e-cigarettes.North Carolina’s law imposes a 5 cent tax for every milliliter of liquid containing nicotine in an e-cigarette, while Minnesota’s law taxes e-cigarettes and liquid containing nicotine.Indoor smoking laws exist in 27 states and the District of Columbia but only three of those states — New Jersey, North Dakota and Utah — prohibit e-cigarette use in places such as bars, restaurants and private workplaces as they would with cigarettes, the MMWR study said.

Utah legislators have gone one step further: In March, the state Legislature passed a bill to go into effect July 2016 that will require e-cigarette retailers to be licensed to sell their products and will punish anyone caught selling e-cigarettes to minors, said Adam Bramwell, the marketing manager and media liaison for the Utah Department of Health’s Tobacco Prevention and Control Program.Liquid that is used in e-cigarette vaporizers is on display Jan.poison call centers have seen a spike in calls in recent years due to exposure to the liquids inside e-cigarettes, particularly among children.Photo by Justin Sullivan, courtesy Getty Images “Between 2011 and 2013, we saw more than a threefold increase in the percentage of underage Utah teens using e-cigarettes,” Bramwell told The Nation’s Health.“While we wait for the science on the long-term effects of these things and for the FDA to weigh in, thousands of teens in Utah are starting a nicotine addiction via e-cigarettes.

We’re seeing ads that make these flimsy claims about e-cigarettes being fun and safe; meanwhile it’s imperative we get something into place to put our finger in the dam until we know more.” But state health officials acknowledge there are challenges legislators face in moving laws that regulate e-cigarettes through a legislature.One challenge is the policy debate over what the role of the federal government and the state government should be, while another is dealing with a strong e-cigarette lobby that markets products as safe alternatives to traditional smoking despite a lack of scientific evidence, O’Dowd said.Also clouding the debate is that manufacturers often market e-cigarettes as smoking cessation devices, she said.“We’re seeing the evidence that these products are being marketed to children and the number of children using them is increasing dramatically over time,” O’Dowd told The Nation’s Health.“It’s not consistent with the marketing that it’s for adults to quit smoking.” E-cigarette research continues to grow As states continue to pass laws regulating e-cigarettes, health officials have been able to draw from an increasing body of scientific evidence about the health effects of their use.

poison call centers saw a spike in calls in recent years due to exposure to the liquids inside e-cigarettes, according to an April 2014 MMWR study.The number of exposure calls jumped from one per month in September 2010 to more than 200 a month by February 2014, the study said.Just over half of those calls involved kids younger than age 5 who either inhaled the liquid, consumed it or absorbed it through their skin or eyes.In California, for example, the number of poison control center calls involving e-cigarette exposure to children ages 5 and younger increased from seven in 2012 to 154 by 2013, according to “State Health Officer’s Report on E-Cigarettes: A Community Health Threat,” a report released in January by the California Department of Public Health.Additionally, the aerosol released from e-cigarettes has been found to have at least 10 chemicals, such as benzene and cadmium, that are on a state list of chemicals known to cause birth defects and cancer, the report said.

“Overall, research confirms that e-cigarettes are not emission-free and their pollutants could be of health concern for both users and those exposed to the secondhand aerosol,” the report said.“Although it may not be as dangerous as secondhand smoke from cigarettes, people passively exposed to e-cigarette aerosol absorb nicotine at levels comparable to passive smokers.” The California Department of Public Health also issued an e-cigarette health advisory for health care professionals in January.The advisory covered topics such as nicotine poisonings and youth use and issued recommendations to health care professionals, calling for them to educate parents and youth about the products.California state law bans the sale of e-cigarettes to anyone younger than age 18.In a review of 82 studies on e-cigarettes, researchers concluded that because of ultrafine particles, e-cigarette vapor is not “harmless water vapor” and can be a source of indoor air pollution, despite limited research data, according to a May 2014 scientific review in Circulation.