Tobacco Center Faculty Blog

E-cigarette companies and the people who support them love to point out that the flavors used in e-cigarettes are "generally recognized as safe" (GRAS).  The GRAS definition applies to ingested (eaten) not inhaled (breathed) use of these chemicals. 
 
In fact, the Flavor and Extract Manufacturers Association of America (FEMA), the organization which assigns most of the GRAS designations, specifically warns its members to ensure that workers are protected from inhaling flavors while working with them.  In its 32 page guide, Respiratory Health and Safety in the Flavor Manufacturing Workplace, it recommends that the following two signs be posted where people are working with flavors:
 

WARNING – This flavor may pose an inhalation hazard if improperly handled. Please contact your workplace safety officer before opening and handling, and read the MSDS [material safety data sheet].  Handling of this flavor that results in inhalation of fumes, especially if the flavor is heated, may cause severe adverse health effects.

Congressmen Henry Waxman and Frank Pallone and Senator Dick Durbin have written a letter to all the state attorneys general to use the MSA to reign in out-of-control e-cigarette advertising.  Their statement and copies of all the letters are here.
 
They also (again) call for FDA action, but, as I have noted before, it will be years before anything meaningful materializes from the FDA.  There is a lot that the states AGs can do.  Here in California, for example, Attorney General Kamila Harris could enforce the consent agreement NJOY signed promising not to introduce flavors.  There is also a lot of deceptive marketing going on all over the country.