North Carolina Senators Stan Bingham, R-Davidson, and Don Davis, D-Pitt, are co-sponsors of North Carolina Senate Bill 286, a bill that mandates child-resistant packaging and warning labels on liquids used with electronic cigarette vaporizers. The goal of the proposed bill is to reduce potential public health harm from the devices.

The law would ban in North Carolina the sale of any e-liquid product without the packaging and warning labels. If passed, it would take effect Dec. 1, 2015. Violators would face a Class A1 misdemeanor charge.

E-cigarettes are battery-powered devices that heat a liquid nicotine solution in a disposable cartridge and create a vapor that is inhaled. A vaporizer can be supplied and reused through the insertion of a liquid capsule. The bill requires child-resistant packaging that would make it “significantly difficult” for those under the age of 5 to open an e-liquid capsule. The safety warning would have to be consistent with rules adopted by the N.C. Commission for Public Health.

Exposure risks from the nicotine liquid include ingestion, inhalation, eyes and skin. The most common adverse health effects in e-cig exposure calls were vomiting, nausea and eye irritation. Bingham said he views the bill as “an educational tool, as much as a warning, for all ages of the potential harm” from e-liquids. He said there are too many e-cig and vaporizer users which don’t recognize the potential harm the e-liquid can cause if contacted in those ways.

“We’re concerned about the bootleggers of these liquids who are selling product without warning labels, either from recipes they make themselves or they get from suppliers,” Bingham said.

In 2013, the legislature added vapor products, including e-cigs, to a law prohibiting sales of tobacco to youth under 18 and requiring age verification for Internet sales. At least 24 states have passed similar laws, and the Food and Drug Administration has recommended similar age restrictions.

The industry, advocacy groups and consumers have been waiting since 2009 for the FDA to decide how it will regulate e-cigs for product safety, minimum legal age for use, flavors, marketing and retail availability.

Heightened concern has been expressed about the safety of e-liquids, particularly by a group of seven U.S. Senate Democrats, since the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a report in 2014 that found a higher level of poisoning events for children, particularly those under age 5.

R.J. Reynolds Vapor Co. said its Vuse e-cig product was “specifically designed as a closed system product that … minimizes chances for accidental exposure to e-liquid, battery failure or other potential problems or misuse. They are designed to minimize the possibility of any leaks, to be tamper-resistant and choke-hazard resistant.”

Bingham said he understands the “potential for these products to help reduce overall smoking, but we want them to be as safe as possible until the FDA sets its standards.”

Officials with several North Carolina traditional tobacco outlets and vape shops say they already source e-liquid capsules from suppliers that feature child-resistant caps and warning labels.