Downriver Today

State Rep. Joe Bellino (R-Monroe) recently took his fight to ban vitamin E acetate in smokeless tobacco alternatives to the House Regulatory Reform Committee.

“Today, I testified in front of the Committee,” Bellino posted on Facebook on Dec. 3. “The chemical is a filler in low-quality vapor and smokeless products that can be harmful when inhaled.”

Bellino says his bipartisan legislation that would prohibit the sale of vapor products or alternatives nicotine products that contain vitamin E acetate is in direct response to the recent spike in reported health injuries nationwide caused by e-cigarettes.

“There is now scientific evidence that vitamin E acetate is a culprit behind serious lung injuries of patients across the country,” he said in a Michigan House Republicans press release. “The CDC is continuing to conduct tests to monitor the situation, but recommends people avoid using vapor products that contain of vitamin E acetate. It couldn’t be more important we take the necessary steps as a state to be proactive with this growing epidemic. This chemical is not needed in these products and it is best we put a halt to it before more people are diagnosed with severe lung injuries.”

Back in July, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) began working with state and local health departments in probing an increase in lung-injury illnesses related to vaping. Over the next three months, there had been 867 reports of patients with vapor-borne illnesses, the overwhelming majority of which reported using a THC product over the previous 90 days and the fluid samples of roughly one-third of all those patients contained traces of vitamin E acetate, the press release.

With vitamin E acetate commonly linked to vapor products, Bellino’s legislation also pushes for harsher penalties for those who fail to remove vapor products containing vitamin E acetate from their shelves.