Oakland Group Taking Legal Action Against 19 E-Cigarette Companies
On Wednesday, the Oakland-based Center for Environmental Health announced it will take legal action against 19 electronic cigarette manufacturers after a report found that their products contained cancer-causing chemicals, The Hill reports.
Details of Report
In a report released Wednesday, CEH said it found cancer-causing chemicals in at least one product from each e-cigarette company (Wheeler, The Hill, 9/2).
For the report, CEH purchased 97 e-cigarette products and had them tested in a lab.
The tests found that 50 of the products had high levels of either formaldehyde or acetaldehyde, or both (Worland, Time, 9/2). Further, the report found that:
- 21 products produced a level of one of the chemicals at more than 10 times the California safety standard; and
- Seven products produced a level of one of the chemicals at more than 100 times the safety standard.
Details of Legal Action
According to The Hill, CEH alleges that the 19 e-cigarette companies violated Proposition 65 by failing to warn consumers about the high levels of harmful chemicals in their products.
Among the companies that CEH alleges violated state law are:
- ITG Brands;
- NJOY; and
- RJ Reynolds (The Hill, 9/2).
In a release, CEH Executive Director Michael Green said, "Our legal action aims to force the industry to comply with the law and create pressure to end [the companies'] most abusive practices" (Time, 9/2).
According to CEH, the action is separate from a lawsuit it filed earlier this year against e-cigarette makers for allegedly failing to warn consumers about nicotine in the products (CEH release, 9/2). In that suit, CEH alleged that 19 companies sold the products without state-mandated warning labels (California Healthline, 2/10).
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