Despite lobbyist's objection, Senate panel OKs tighter restrictions on vaping devices

PHOENIX — Hoping to curb teen use, state lawmakers are moving to put new restrictions on where and how vaping devices can be sold.

Without dissent, the Senate Committee on Health and Human Services voted Wednesday to classify both the electronic-cigarette devices and the liquids they burn as tobacco products. That would make them subject to the same restrictions in Arizona law as cigarettes.

The approval of SB 1009 came over the objections of Gibson McKay, lobbyist for the Vapor Technology Association, which represents manufacturers, wholesalers and business owners who market the devices.

McKay said his members have no problem with imposing new restrictions on youth purchases. In fact, he has persuaded Rep. T.J. Shope, R-Coolidge, to sponsor industry-crafted legislation imposing penalties on those who would furnish these devices to minors.

But McKay said they don’t want to be lumped in the same category as tobacco products.

One big issue is that Arizona law forbids the sale of cigarettes online. McKay does not want a similar restriction on vaping devices.

And he fears that such a change could make the devices subject to the same taxes now imposed on tobacco products.

That, he said, undermines the whole purpose behind vaping devices.

“We’re not tobacco,” McKay told lawmakers. “We vaporize a product that is glycerin.”

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That product, he acknowledged, has nicotine in it. And that chemical, said McKay, may come from tobacco products.

But McKay said it’s the other chemicals in tobacco smoke that cause cancer and other lung diseases. And he cited a 2015 report by Public Health England that said e-cigarettes are 95 percent less harmful than smoking.

That, McKay said, is why it should be seen not as a health risk but as a method to help adults quit smoking — and why it should not be regulated in Arizona like tobacco.

That explanation did not wash with Sen. Heather Carter, R-Cave Creek, who is pushing for the additional regulation.

She said if e-cigarettes were designed to help people quit, then the industry would have registered it as a medical device with the federal Food and Drug Administration. With that classification, Carter said, it would be exempt from Arizona law and could be sold online, just like nicotine gums and patches.

“You can’t have it both ways,” she told McKay.

What that leaves, said Carter, is the explosion in youth vaping.

Andrew LeFevre, executive director of the Arizona Criminal Justice Commission, said the latest survey of teens show more than 25 percent of high school seniors reported using a vaping device in the past 30 days, what he said is an indicator of regular use.

While the legislation did get unanimous committee approval, several lawmakers suggested they want the bill amended when it goes to the full Senate to continue to allow internet sales to adults. Carter indicated she’s willing to alter the bill to accommodate adults — but with a much more vigorous age verification than exists now.