CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Those campaigning with the national “Right to Vape Tour” are urging U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and members of West Virginia’s congressional delegation to reject the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s regulatory war on vaping.
One of the tour stops was in Charleston Monday night.
“We need people who have had their lives changed by vaping to contact Senator Joe Manchin, other members of the delegation here in West Virginia and tell them that this product saved your life and that you want it to stay around,” said Gregory Conley, president of the American Vaping Association.
Currently, there is an amendment pending in Congress that would modernize the FDA’s current standards and stop the agency from banning almost all vapor products, bankrupt small businesses, harm public health and destroy jobs nationwide come Aug. 2018, Conley said.
“Not because they’re unsafe, not because they pose risks, but simply because the manufacturers cannot afford to go through this process,” he explained.
Vaping is the act of inhaling vapor from e-liquid, typically made up of propylene glycol or vegetable glycerin. It’s a tobacco-free version of the traditional cigarette.
Conley quit smoking cigarettes six years ago and has been vaping ever since. He said West Virginia leaders need to know the product is much safer than cigarettes.
“If we could just get smokers to switch to a smoke-free product, that’s going to eliminate 95, 98, 99 percent plus of tobacco-related disease and death,” he said. “We need alternatives. Smokers deserve these products.”
Earlier this year, the Royal College of Physicians released a report estimating that vaping is at least 95 percent less hazardous than smoking.
The Centers for Disease Control estimates that between 9 and 10 million Americans regularly use vaping products as an alternative to or a transition away from tobacco products.
The national “Right to Vape” campaign, made up of a non-partisan coalition of organizations, is traveling to 20 states this fall.