WASHINGTON -- On Jan. 28, President Obama signed the Child Nicotine Poisoning Prevention Act of 2015, legislation that "requires the packaging of liquid nicotine containers for use in electronic cigarettes to be subject to existing child poisoning prevention packaging standards."
Senator Bill Nelson (D.-Fla.), who introduced the bill (S. 142), said, “Requiring childproof caps on these bottles is just common sense.”
He said it follows rising concern about nicotine and poisoning exposure incidents, which resulted in about 2,300 cases of poison exposure in young children in 2014, according to the American Association of Poison Control Centers.
The legislation requires that all liquid-nicotine containers have packaging that makes it difficult for children under five years old to open.
The Smoke-Free Alternatives Trade Association (SFATA), which represents the vaping industry, supported the legislation and encouraged its members to begin implementing childproof packaging voluntarily. The organization favored a national standard over a variety of state childproof packaging laws that would be more difficult on national liquid-nicotine manufacturers.
“It's common sense,” said Cynthia Cabrera, SFATA president. “These are adult products and should be treated like adult products.”
The effort will increase the cost of a bottle cap for manufacturers by six to 12 cents, said Greg Conley, president of the American Vaping Association (AVA). He said the cost to producers was “minimal.”
As with prescription drugs and some over-the-counter (OTC) products, U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) standards and testing procedures for special packaging will apply.
"Liquid nicotine container" is defined to: (1) include a package from which nicotine in a solution or other form is accessible through normal and foreseeable use by a consumer and that is used to hold soluble nicotine in any concentration; and (2) exclude a sealed, pre-filled, and disposable container of nicotine in a solution or other form in which such container is inserted directly into an electronic cigarette, electronic nicotine delivery system, or other similar product, if the nicotine in the container is inaccessible through customary or reasonably foreseeable handling or use, including reasonably foreseeable ingestion or other contact by children," said the bill.
The definition covers bottles of refillable nicotine-containing e-liquid sold directly to consumers for use in "open-system" electronic vaping devices, but not packaging for zero-nicotine e-liquid, according to a report by The National Law Review.
Special packaging requirements also would not apply to "closed-system" e-cigarettes (cigalikes) where the e-liquid is not intended to come into contact with or be handled by the consumer, said the report.
The new bill, which would take effect 180 days after it is signed into law, does not limit or pre-empt the U.S. Food & Drug Administration's (FDA) authority to regulate e-cigarettes, and the FDA would still be empowered to impose its own packaging requirements, the report said.
Members help make our journalism possible. Become a CSP member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.