Dave Bangert

dbangert@jconline.com

LAFAYETTE, Ind. — After weeks of taking heat over new Indiana regulations for e-cigarette industry and hearing implications that the law was rigged to benefit a hometown Lafayette business, state Sen. Ron Alting this week joined the mounting calls to re-evaluate the law again in 2017.

“I give you my word that I’ll work with the leadership in the Senate, and we’re going to get that thing fixed,” said Alting, a Lafayette Republican. “This was supposed to be about safety in an unregulated industry, not about creating monopolies or anything.”

That promise won’t be enough to salvage business in the state for producers to the flavored liquid used in vaping, an electronic alternative to smoking. Indiana’s law — a mix of new regulations, including the prohibition of sales to minors, requirements to list ingredients and manufacturing rules — goes into effect Friday.

In question since the law was signed by Gov. Mike Pence in April was its requirement that manufacturers contract with a security firm to oversee clean rooms for production and remote monitoring for spaces where the vaping liquids are mixed, bottled and stored.

The requirements for security firms was specific enough and narrow enough that only one company — Mulhaupt’s Inc. in downtown Lafayette — qualified. Mulhaupt’s has taken on six manufacturers ahead of the July 1 deadline. That’s left many more aced out as the new law looms.

Last week, John Gregg, the Democratic candidate for governor, told the Indianapolis Business Journal that “reports about this apparent monopoly are more than a little disturbing” and that a review of the law “is in order.” Rex Bell, Libertarian candidate for governor, echoed those sentiments on Tuesday. Senate President David Long, R-Fort Wayne, through a spokesman told the IBJ that Senate leaders were looking into “getting all the facts surrounding the legislation and its actual impact on the marketplace.”

The General Assembly in 2015 first approved regulations for the vaping liquid industry, including expectations for security firms. When no security firms were able to meet standards set in the law, the General Assembly tried again with House Bill 1386, a bill Alting sponsored in the Senate.

The adjusted rules included stipulations that firms had someone on staff certified by the Door and Hardware Institute as an architectural hardware consultant and the International Door Association as a rolling steel fire door technician. The law also said the company had to have those staffers on hand for a year ahead of July 1, 2016.

Attempts to adjust those requirements, so more firms other than Mulhaupt’s could get into the game, were shot down during Senate Public Policy Committee hearings. Alting is chairman of that committee.

The law makes Mulhaupt’s the de facto gatekeeper for the industry, for the time being. (Doug Mulhaupt, owner of the company, previously told the J&C that Mulhaupt’s was just adhering to the law and couldn’t help that other firms haven’t met the requirements.)

“I know how this looks,” Alting said. “I’m not sure what to say about the backlash. … That said, I don’t live in a make-believe world. I’m just here to tell you that’s not how this was supposed to work out.”

Alting said he still believes the state needs to keep up with the vaping industry. He said that two consecutive sessions with problems with getting the laws right says something.

“The vape legislation is not doing a very good batting average, in general. And maybe that’s because it’s such a new product, I don’t know,” Alting said. “No matter what, we have to get this fixed quick.”

Contact J&C reporter Dave Bangert at dbangert@jconline.com.

Lafayette security firm at center of e-liquid regulation debate

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