Call to Action: Ask Your Legislators to Support a Change to the Tobacco Control Act

[Luisa]

Below is a post I made on another thread, and I'm sharing it here because it has information about the CTA:



http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...ederal-agencies-many-antz-4.html#post14794860

We sent out more than 30,000 emails, we boosted the post on Facebook so that our Facebook reach was 27.712 (15,888 of that being paid reach), and, of course, we have banner placement here on ECF . . . and yet participation is at about 3,000 people.

It is disheartening.

Yes,it certainly is disheartening! The B and M stores are a perfect avenue for increasing participation--if the owners would only take a little time to educate their customers and then direct them to ECF and the CASAA site. Local bans could be defeated if they helped by encouraging their customers to speak out at Council meetings. Politicians do look at numbers and that is really the only thing that will help win this battle. Maybe we should have something like rent a mob to march on Washington as many other special interests have done for ever so long. Rather than "rent a mob",maybe "rent a letter writing lobby".

 

[krwynn]

Done & done!

 

[kkay59]

I got the same stinking response. I wasn't happy either.

This is what I got in response to the the grandfather change letter.

Thank you for contacting me regarding the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). I appreciate having the benefit of your comments on this important issue.

As you may know, on April 24, 2014, the FDA issued a proposed rule that would extend new regulatory authority to e-cigarettes and various other tobacco products, including cigars, pipe tobacco, and nicotine gels. Under the proposed rule, these products would be subject to controls such as registration and product listing requirements, prohibition on providing free samples, and restrictions on marketing products prior to FDA review. Additionally, minimum age and identification requirements would be implemented to prevent sales to underage youth. The public comment period for this rule closed July 9, 2014, and a final rule is expected to be issued by June 2015.

I appreciate having the opportunity to represent Texas in the United States Senate. Thank you for taking the time to contact me.

Sincerely,
JOHN CORNYN
United States Senator

Need less to say I was not pleased. And responded to his informative message

I'm very disappointed by your NON-respose. What I see is a Standard Politician's response.

I'm very sorry that I voted for you. And I dearly hope that the competition that runs against you in upcoming elections is Man/Woman enough to make a statement in support or disapproval of a request from a person he is elected to represent. I feel that we the voting public deserve better.

 

[kkay59]

As with analog cigarettes, you cannot sell to minors. Minors cannot have alcohol either. How many kids take illegal drugs? Drugs are illegal in almost all states, yet people still manage to use them, regardless. I'm not saying it is okay for minors to use e cigs. E cig dealers go out of their way to put that 18 and over warning on their websites. They will not sell to minors. Prohibition didn't work. This won't work either. The war on drugs has not been won. It has cost us untold obscene amounts of money. The drug cartels are raking in the dough, because of micro managing people's lives. Enough is enough. How about they let me take care of my personal business for a change? You cannot tell me e cigs are worse than regular smoking. This is about power, and control. Enough already.

Senator Bill Nelson FL response
Although e-cigarettes may benefit public health, I am troubled by their availability to minors and the lack of reliable health studies. Educating children about the dangers of smoking is the best way to prevent them from ever starting the habit.

Rest assured that I will continue to monitor the situation as it develops. Please do not hesitate to contact me in the future.

Sincerely,
Bill Nelson

 

[JoeyC]

Done and done

 

[DC2]

I just got a reply today...

Dear Mr. [DC2]:

Thank you for taking the time to write and share your views with me. Your comments will help me continue to represent you and other Californians to the best of my ability. Be assured that I will keep your views in mind as the Senate considers legislation on this or similar issues.

If you would like additional information about my work in the U.S. Senate, I invite you to visit my website, Home | Barbara Boxer, United States Senator for California. From this site, you can send a message to me about current events or pending legislation, access my statements and press releases, request copies of legislation and government reports, and receive detailed information about the many services that I am privileged to provide for my constituents. You may also wish to visit THOMAS (Library of Congress) to track current and past federal legislation.

Again, thank you for sharing your thoughts with me. I appreciate hearing from you.


Sincerely,

Barbara Boxer
United States Senator

Please do not respond to this message. If you would like to comment on legislation, please visit my website and use the correspondence form at https://www.boxer.senate.gov/contact/shareyourviews.html.

Form letter replies are bad enough...
But downright insulting when they don't even bother to acknowledge which issue you contacted them about.

 

[zoiDman]

I just got a reply today...




Form letter replies are bad enough...
But downright insulting when they don't even bother to acknowledge which issue you contacted them about.

Man... Even as Form Letters go, that is an Exceptionally Bad One.

 

[amoret]

I'm in a slightly odd position on this at the moment. So, I've been trying to get a response from my Teapublican US representative (Kevin Cramer) about his position on vaping, with no response. I finally got borderline rude on my third request, and got a voicemail this morning (after saying I prefer email to phone, but if they had to call, to do it in the afternoon) from an intern basically saying that he (Rep. Cramer) knows nothing about it, and wanting me to call back and talk. He is on the house committee on Energy and Commerce. I'd been carefully not letting them know my position while asking, since he is the type to answer whatever he thinks you want to hear.

So now, in addition to convincing myself to actually talk to someone (can you say extreme introvert?) I need to have some good information gathered to hand for when I call. I've brought up my original FDA comment, and am scanning through various ECF threads collecting what information I can.

I'm particularly looking for the study (British? European?) that showed better quit rates for people using vaporizers than for traditional NRTs and quit smoking support. I have the CASAA information, and the link of compiled studies.

I hope to be set to call back tomorrow (and request an email address for sending detailed info) with my basic points in order. It should be interesting.

 

[amoret]

FYI: This is what I have for statement/information so far. It is pulled from my FDA comment, letters to the editor I've written to our regional newspaper, and snippets that I have found on ECF that seem to add to it. I'm working on pulling some of it out as an outline for the call.

I smoked for more than 40 years and have finally been able to quit thanks to these devices. In the past I had tried all of the officially approved methods to quit smoking, including the patch, gum, buproprion, lozenges and Chantix (now there is a dangerous product) but I never quit wanting to smoke, and I always started up again as soon as I was under stress. This time I haven’t wanted to smoke again, despite several very stressful events in my life.

My doctors are happy about this. I am breathing better than I have in decades. I am also a lot safer, since I have nerve damage that makes it hard to hold onto things, and dropping my personal vaporizer won’t start a fire.

I wish that there was more research being done, but as I am sure you know, research takes money and time. For a quick listing of some of the recent studies from around the world I would suggest he start with The Ultimate List of E-Cig Studies: Are E-Cigs Actually Safe? at Vaping Reviews, Tips, and Guides. Yes, the site could be considered a biased source, but the science cited is not. There are also new and positive studies coming out of Europe.

I regret the fact that the big tobacco companies are taking over what has been an independent industry, and I am afraid that many of the regulations being proposed will drive the mom and pop businesses that produce and sell these products out of business. What was a relatively niche market just a decade ago is now a two billion dollar industry. Personal vaporizers that take a variety of liquids seem to be much more effective for many people than the closed system “cig-a-likes” being promoted by the tobacco companies. The regulations as proposed would limit the choices, and thus the usefulness, of these products.

The many flavors, colors and styles are being marketed to adults. If adults didn’t appreciate flavored products there would be no use for any alcohol other than plain grain spirits, would there? Let alone the mint and fruit flavors that nicotine gum and lozenges come in. I participate on the Electronic Cigarette Forum, and most of the adults there prefer sweet flavors. I have also seen pictures there of Hello Kitty themed devices posted by the adults who chose and use them.

Yes, I’m still a nicotine user, but nicotine is not the cause of the health problems caused by cigarettes. This has been shown in the studies of the pharmaceutical nicotine replacement products. E-cigarettes have the potential to help a lot of people who haven’t been able to quit smoking with the methods previously available to finally manage it. This is not a minimal benefit, it is a major one.

Appropriate regulations could include limiting sales to adults (but not limiting internet sales - I live in a rural area and am disabled - I buy most products through the internet), requiring disclosure of the ingredients in nicotine liquid and requiring that sellers offer the option of child resistant packaging - though please, not making that the only option, since those can be impossible for those of us who are older and/or disabled to use.

Inappropriate regulations include reducing the choices for flavors, requiring childproof packaging on all liquids, limiting the choices of equipment, and requiring separate testing of nicotine products that contain the same, limited number of ingredients - propylene glycol, vegetable glycerine, nicotine and food safe flavors.

The proposed FDA regulations would deem personal vaporizers to be tobacco products. Nicotine gums, patches, lozenges and sprays also contain nicotine and are not considered tobacco products.

Proposed regulations only permit products which were being marketed as of Feb. 15, 2007, to be "grandfathered," which means they would not be required to undergo a rigorous and expensive approval process. However, I know of no product now on the market which existed on or before that date.

John Boehner, Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy, Majority Leader, and Fred Upton, Chairman of the Energy & Commerce Committee, have written a letter to the FDA asking that the date be moved to either April 2014 or the date the final rule is published. This would definitely make more sense than using a date before electronic cigarettes were available in their current forms.

 

[DC2]

I'm particularly looking for the study (British? European?) that showed better quit rates for people using vaporizers than for traditional NRTs and quit smoking support.

You might want to start a new thread in the General Vaping Forum where more people will see it.
I know there are some studies like that, but I don't have links to them.