

Comment Info: =================

General Comment:A 75 day period of time to review the proposed regulations is insufficient.  We are requesting that the review period be extended to 180 days.

While I still have occasional traditional cigarettes, I have quit cigarettes more effectively than ever in my life, and I've been smoking since I was 15 - a long time. The reason it's worked so well this time? Electronic cigarettes.

Currently this is a booming business where small local shops around the country (there's even one in Bristol) construct appealing flavors in the much safer medium of the vapor format. We can select our levels of nicotine, and most companies even allow us to exclude or minimize the propylene glycol content, which is the only controversial ingredient currently. Even nicotine on its own is even safer than caffeine. This is and has been a path for millions of smokers to quit, and it's created a whole new industry with tons of jobs as well.

The only companies that could afford to exist in such a market as proposed are the current big tobacco companies. While I don't disagree that these products should be regulated, categorizing them as such is, again, a huge mistake. The health arguments are a smokescreen for big business interests.

Please keep this vital tool in the hands of citizens and small business, and out of the hands of the people that willfully addicted generations of our population to their products. 
