Should Children Be Allowed to Buy E-Cigarettes?

Attorney General Peter Kilmartin is asking federal regulators to ban sales of electronic cigarettes to minors and stop e-cigarette companies from marketing to youths, he announced this week.

Kilmartin was one of 40 attorneys general across the country on Tuesday to send a letter to the Food and Drug Administration asking to “move quickly to ensure that all tobacco products are tested and regulated to ensure that companies do not continue to sell or advertise to our nation’s youth,” his office announced.

There are no federal age restrictions on e-cigarettes and no rules about advertising e-cigarettes to youths. Big tobacco companies have recently entered the e-cigarette market and e-cigarette sales are expected to reach $1.7 billion this year, reported The Boston Globe.

The percentages of young people who have tried or currently use e-cigarettes both roughly doubled between 2011 and 2012, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The survey estimates nearly 1.8 million middle and high school students tried e-cigarettes in 2012. The study also found that 76 percent of middle and high school students who used e-cigarettes within the past 30 days also smoked conventional cigarettes in the same period, raising concerns that e-cigarette use may encourage conventional cigarette smoking.

What do you think? Should the federal government ban e-cigarette sales to minors and should e-cigarette companies not market to youths? Let us know in the comments section below.