US: State Takes Action on Deceptive Labeling of ''organic'' E-cigarette Liquids

Source from:  Boomer Consumer 10/29/2015

The Washington State Attorney General's Office filed a lawsuit against Alchemy e-Lixirs for making unproven health claims, for deceptive labeling, and for selling products as organic without being certified.

It also required two other companies that labeled e-liquid as organic without being certified - Jai Mundi, which produces Virgin Vapor brand e-liquid, and Orb Vapor - to enter into agreements to stop their deceptive labeling.

"Washington consumers have a right to expect product labels to be truthful," Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson said.

E-cigarettes and other electronic nicotine delivery systems have grown in popularity since their introduction to U.S. markets in 2007. The e-cigarette market is a $3.5 billion industry, and thousands of e-cigarette businesses have opened across the country.

Following this expansion and public discussion about the health claims of "vaping" - the inhalation of vaporized solvent, usually containing nicotine - some e-cigarette businesses began marketing their e-liquid as "organic."

Alchemy e-Lixirs

Alchemy e-Lixirs manufactures and sells e-liquids that it claims are 100 percent organic. It advertised that, because its e-liquids are organic, the products are "safe," "healthy," and "completely free from any potential harm."

Some of the ingredients in Alchemy e-Lixirs are organic, but not 100 percent of them, Ferguson said, adding Alchemy failed to produce any evidence to verify its health claims. Alchemy hasn't established that its e-liquid - whether organic or not - is safe and healthy, he said.

Alchemy has also failed to obtain organic certification as required by Washington's organic products law, he said.

Jai Mundi and Orb Vapor

Jai Mundi and Orb Vapor manufacture and sell what they call "organic" e-liquid, but both failed to obtain organic certification as required by state law, Ferguson said.

In addition, Jai Mundi and Orb Vapor claimed that their products are made with organic ingredients even when the products contained less than 70 percent organic ingredients. Under Washington law, which incorporates federal organic regulations, the phrase "made with organic" ingredients generally may not be used to label and promote products that contain less than 70 percent organic ingredients.

Jai Mundi and Orb Vapor have entered into agreements with the Attorney General's Office, and they've come into compliance with state and federal laws regulating organic products.

Ferguson said Orb Vapor isn't labeling and advertising its products as organic, and Jai Mundi has discontinued some products, modified labels, and is completing the organic certification process.

Attorney general to ask for state legislation to increase e-cigarette regulation

During the last legislative session, Gov. Jay Inslee and Ferguson introduced legislation to regulate e-cigarettes like tobacco products are regulated.

Nicotine, which e-cigarettes often use as a delivery device, is a highly addictive drug - as addictive as heroin and cocaine - and harmful to adolescent and young adult brain development, Ferguson said, adding the long-term health effects of inhaling e-cigarette aerosol solvent aren't known.

Ferguson said e-cigarettes are largely unregulated in Washington, and he said he'd continue to ask for their regulation.

The 2014 Washington Health Youth Survey showed 23 percent of 12th graders and 18 percent of 10th graders report using vapor products in the past 30 days.

Pierce and Snohomish counties recently proposed local ordinances to regulate vapor products. Enditem