A Missouri lawmaker is proposing new packaging requirements for electronic cigarettes that would require all vapor products be sold in child-safe packaging.
State Rep. Sheila Solon (R-MO), introduced the bill after a pediatrician, and constituent, who she has worked with on other projects, brought her attention to a growing problem she was seeing – an increase in poison control calls relating to liquid nicotine.
If passed by the state legislature, the Department of Health and Senior Services would adopt rules establishing standards for child-safe packaging.
"It needs to go beyond a seal on the tank," Solon said. "It has to have some childproofing once the seal is broken, so they can't open it."
In a telephone interview Solon told Healthcare Packaging the Missouri poison control received 46 calls relating to e-cigarettes in 2013. By the end of November 2014, they received 112 calls, with 61 percent of them dealing with kids under 6 years old.
There is federal legislation in the pipeline that addresses this topic, but Solon said it doesn't seem to be going anywhere fast.
"It seems like common sense legislation, but the bill at the federal level has gone nowhere," she said. "We can't afford to wait for the federal government to step up and do the right thing."
