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Community Corner

Coalition Forms to Oppose New York Electronic Cigarette Bill

New York City Businesses and Members of the Public Unite to Support Smarter Smoking Alternatives

(New York, New York) October, 2013 – New York City retailers, wholesalers, distributors, and members of the public today formed New Yorkers for Smarter Smoking Alternatives (NYSSA) to combat legislation seeking to prohibit the use of electronic cigarettes in certain indoor areas throughout the state. The bill introduced to the Assembly on Friday will categorize electronic cigarettes as smoking devices, restricting their use anywhere smoking is prohibited.

The new coalition asserts that regulation should be commensurate with harm. Prematurely grouping an inherently different product with traditional tobacco is unjustified without proper scientific review. The NYSSA urges New York officials to thoroughly research the effects of electronic cigarettes before implementing such far-reaching legislation.

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If implemented, the restrictions imposed by the bill will inhibit public freedom and have detrimental health and economic consequences in New York.

Retailers are concerned that this new categorization will affect sales, and electronic cigarette users are outraged that the new proposal restricts access to a product which serves as a smarter alternative to traditional cigarette smoke.

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“Mayor Bloomberg and the Department of Health have been attacking smoking rights for over a decade, pushing the people to quit. Just as New York smokers found a smarter alternative, officials are seeking to wound public freedom even further,” says NYSSA Spokesman David Schwartz. “This new coalition has formed to keep the ‘Nanny State’ from overstepping yet another right that we will strive to protect.”

The members of this coalition recognize that electronic cigarettes have helped countless people better control – and even eliminate – their smoking habit, play a significant and crucial role in supporting the local New York economy, and provide a smoking alternative that has touched the lives of thousands while other smoking cessation products have fallen short.

Effective immediately, the NYSSA will serve as New York’s leading alternative smoking rights advocacy organization. The group will unite businesses, consumers, experts, and members of the public in order to protect their right to smarter smoking alternatives.

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For more information, please visit
http://nysmartsmoke.org/
http://gothamgr.com/


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