WASHINGTON & TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--AEMSA President Scott Eley and CVA President Shaun Casey announced today that their respective organizations will join forces in an ad hoc Alliance based on shared principles to promote a professional standards-based regulatory system for vapor products and retailers based on strong industry input for presentation to the e-vapor regulatory agencies on both sides of the US-Canadian border. To read the 9 shared principles for effective vapor products regulation please visit www.aemsa.org.

“Both organizations strongly support the need for sensible regulation of our industries,” according to Scott Eley with AEMSA. “The key is to get the regulation right so that electronic vapor products meet mandatory professional manufacturing and retail standards, so innovation for new products is incentivized, and to ensure that these products are regulated to promote tobacco harm reduction and are not categorized as tobacco products.”

CVA President Shaun Casey stated at the Alliance announcement, “Canada has already enacted legislation which puts electronic vaping products in a separate category from tobacco products. As Scott indicated, this is essential to get effective regulations for the industry. The Canadian Vaping Association is excited to work with AEMSA as it moves forward developing its Generation 2 standards for e- liquids, e- liquid components, vaporizer hardware, and retail accreditations.”

Casey continued that, “CVA has a positive working relationship with our Canadian regulator, Health Canada. We know that they view professional-grade manufacturing standards and retail accreditations to be a critical part of its new regulations and it is looking for leadership from industry. We will be providing input to them from the work we do with AEMSA in this new Alliance.”

AEMSA President Scott Eley echoed Casey’s comments, “FDA will be going through an advance notice of proposed rulemaking for electronic vapor product standards. AEMSA has been in the standards business for more than five years now. We are currently updating a second generation of e- liquid manufacturing standards and developing new standards that will be state-of-the-art for e-liquid components, hardware and accreditation standards for retailers. The work that we produce through this Alliance in producing Generation 2 standards will help guide FDA in that process. Like the Canadian framework, electronic vapor product must be regulated in a separate category from tobacco.”

A U.S.- Canadian Best Brains Exchange is being planned by NAVA where U.S. AEMSA industry members will travel to Ottawa to meet with Canadian officials and CVA industry members likewise will travel to Washington, DC to meet with FDA and congressional leaders. The planning for this exchange is in the works and details will be announced shortly.