State of Missouri Plans to Ban Sale of E-Cigarettes to Teens, Report Says

The Associated Press reported on Thursday that Missouri lawmakers passed legislation aimed at preventing youths under the age of 18 from purchasing electronic cigarettes in hopes of regulating the use of nicotine products.

For some reason, the Food and Drug Administration has delayed its review of electronic cigarettes despite a rise in poisonings due to the nicotine-concentrated e-juice as well as nicotine's harmful effects on young adolescents. This delay is prolonging the product's regulation, which is essential for anything relative to health.

Current legislation allows the electronic cigarettes to be purchased by anyone and that has proven to be a bit of an issue as studies and reports found that teens were "aggressively" smoking the e-cigarettes and that the product actually wasn't all that effective in curbing tobacco use. Some of the representatives think that the passage of these bills might not solve the big picture issue.

"This shuts the door on regulation that we may want to see going forward as a tobacco product," said Democratic Rep. Jill Schupp of the Missouri House of Representatives, in this CBS Local News article. She and others believe that such legislation will allow companies to sell nicotine products with fewer restrictions.

But the bills passed with an overwhelming majority: the House voted 129-19 and the Senate voted 27-4 in favor of the ban, the Kansas City Star reports. Proponents of the bills do not believe that they will close down any future regulation, although many think that the restrictions may not even uphold if the FDA issues a regulation on e-cigarettes in the near future.

Missouri has been concerned over the e-cigarette issue for a while now, along with many others, when the state's attorney general Chris Koster signed a letter to the FDA with 40 other state attorneys in attempt to put e-cigarettes on the forefront of the administration's agenda.

30 other states prevent the sale of e-cigarette to teens, but that could change in the wake of the "upcoming" FDA regulation on the product's marketing and sales.

To read more about the Missouri legislation on e-cigarettes, visit this CBS Local News article.