NY AG Cracks Down on E-Cigarettes

New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is trying to crack down on e-cigarettes. He announced a settlement on Tuesday with a number of manufacturers and suppliers of liquid nicotine who didn't comply with state laws about child-resistant packaging. The settlement requires those companies and stores to stop selling their products without proper packaging, provide proof of testing and take measures to recover any unsafe products they have sold.

According to Schneiderman, most e-cigarettes use what's called an open system. This means users refill the device with liquid nicotine rather than by replacing a sealed cartridge with another sealed cartridge in a closed system. Schneiderman said open systems are very dangerous since liquid nicotine is highly toxic.

Schneiderman said e-cigarettes are the new frontier of tobacco based products. He said they still need a lot more regulation.

"It feels like we're starting over again where we were some decades ago with cigarettes," Schneiderman said. "But we're ready for it and we're going to work as hard as we can to ensure the progress we've made on other tobacco products is reflected in the work we do on e-cigarettes."

Schneiderman said the number of accidental exposures to toxic liquid nicotine used in e-cigarettes has increased dramatically since 2011. Then, there were fewer than 300 cases reported to poison control across the country. Last year, that number climbed to over 3700. Schneiderman said this increase lines up with the increasing popularity of open systems, and said exposure is especially harmful to young children.

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