Godshall CTA 2014-06-16

This Call To Action applies to US vapers whose Senator is on the Senate Commerce Committee.

The US Senate Commerce Committee, chaired by Sen. Rockefeller, has scheduled a hearing on June 18 at 2:30PM to lobby for FDA's proposed deeming regulation (that would ban >99% of e-cigs and give the e-cig industry to Big Tobacco and perhaps NJOY) and to yet again falsely accuse e-cig companies of target marketing to youth. Although the witness panel includes two e-cig prohibitionists and two e-cig manufacturers, all five scheduled testifiers (AAP's Susanne Tanski, CTFK's Matt Myers, blu's Jason Healy, NJOY's Craig Weiss, and Scott Ballin) have publicly advocated FDA regulation of e-cigs.

http://www.commerce.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=Hearings&ContentRecord_id=42af91a8-6308-45b5-9842-74bc5833be73&ContentType_id=14f995b9-dfa5-407a-9d35-56cc7152a7ed&Group_id=b06c39af-e033-4cba-9221-de668ca1978a&MonthDisplay=6&YearDisplay=2014

If either of your US Senators is on the US Senate Commerce Cmte http://www.commerce.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=CommitteeMembers

...PLEASE CONTACT him/her before Wednesday's hearing and inform them that:

- since 2009, Obama's FDA and CDC, and Big Pharma funded CTFK, AAP, ACS, AHA, ALA have falsely accused e-cig companies of target marketing to youth despite no evidence,

- FDA's proposed deeming regulation would ban >99% of e-cig products and would give the e-cig industry to Big Tobacco companies and perhaps NJOY,

- e-cigs have helped more than a million cigarette smokers quit smoking,

- e-cigs are target market to adult cigarette smokers and vapers, and virtually all e-cigs have been consumed by adult smokers and former smokers who switched to vaping,

- there is no evidence that any nonsmoking youth (or adult) has become a daily vaper,

- 38 states have already banned the sale of e-cigs to minors despite hypocritical opposition by CTFK, ACS, AHA, ALA.

The vehicle bill for Sen. Rockefeller's June 18 hearing is S. 2047: Protecting Children from Electronic Cigarette Advertising Act of 2014

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c113:S.2047

...co-sponsored by Democrat Sens. Boxer, Durbin, Harkin, Blumenthal, Markey, Brown - which has NO chance of enactment, has negligible chance of Senate passage, and probably wonâ€™t be passed by the Senate Commerce Cmte. At Wednesday's hearing, Senate Democrats and e-cig prohibitionists Matt Myers and Suzanne Tanski almost certainly will cite the Democrats' outrageous April 2014 report "Gateway to Addiction" that falsely accuses all e-cig ads of targeting youth.

http://www.durbin.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/files/serve/?File_id=81d14ff7-f2f6-4856-af9d-c20c0b138f8f

...since Sens. Rockefeller, Boxer, Blumenthal and Markey are on the Senate Commerce Cmte and helped draft the outrageous Gateway to Addiction report.

Timetable of events leading up to June 18 Senate Commerce Cmte hearing (not including FDA actions)

9/13 US Senate/House Democrats who oppose e-cigs send letter to nine e-cig manufacturers (NJOY, Lorillard, Reynolds, Altria, LOGIC, Eonsmoke, GreenSmoke, VMR Products/V2, and Lead By Sales/White Cloud) requesting information about their advertising and marketing practices.

http://www.durbin.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ID=fafe1d70-0a2c-429c-9372-c5ca201cb261

12/13 US Senate Democrats who oppose e-cigs send letter to FTC to urge the agency to investigate and restrict e-cig advertising

http://www.boxer.senate.gov/en/press/releases/121813a.cfm

2/14 US Senate Democrats who oppose e-cigs introduce S. 2047 urging FTC to ban e-cig ads to adults (to protect the children.

http://www.boxer.senate.gov/en/press/releases/022614a.cfm http://www.durbin.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ID=c271fb8b-f576-4de1-aa25-a5fd39549bd9 http://www.help.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/?id=fae757d3-9831-4fb9-b93a-38a54865ebe1&groups=Chair http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/senators-introduce-bill-limit-e-cigarette-marketing-kids-and-teens-155976

2/14 Jacob Sullum points out that S. 2047 is unconstitutional

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacobsullum/2014/02/26/five-senators-demand-unconstitutional-restrictions-on-e-cigarette-ads-for-the-children/

4/14 US Senate/House Democrats who oppose e-cigs issue report "Gateway to Addiction" falsely accusing e-cig companies of target marketing to youth, falsely claim e-cigs are addicting children, and falsely claiming e-cigs are gateways to cigarette smoking.

http://www.durbin.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/files/serve/?File_id=81d14ff7-f2f6-4856-af9d-c20c0b138f8f http://www.durbin.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ID=06acef25-48b0-4d9a-857a-74f7b4fcd4d5 http://blogs.rollcall.com/wgdb/e-cig-sales-ban-children-pushed-durbin-waxman/?dcz=



- Bill Godshall

BillGodshall[AT]verizon[DOT]net



