A state Senate committee has advanced a plan to treat electronic cigarettes no differently than tobacco cigarettes.
E-cigarettes produce no smoke, just a vapor that delivers nicotine to the user.
A proposal is before the state Senate to ban the sale of e-cigarettes to minors in Pennsylvania, just as the sale of tobacco cigarettes to anyone younger than 18 is prohibited.
Republican state Sen. Stewart Greenleaf of Montgomery County says Pennsylvania lawmakers wouldn’t be the first to take up this issue.
"In September, there were attorneys general from 41 states, including our own, Attorney General Kathleen Kane, who sent a letter to the FDA urging them to take regulatory oversight over the advertising and sale of e-cigarettes to minors," Greenleaf said.
The measure’s sponsor says 28 states have banned the sale of e-cigarettes to minors.
In October, doctors with the Pennsylvania Medical Society suggested Pennsylvania’s Legislature do the same.
Other nicotine products, like gum, skin patches and lozenges are already prohibited from being sold to minors under federal law.
