NEW HAVEN >> They come in the colors of the rainbow with flavors such as strawberry margarita and peach mango.
But electronic hookahs, unlike their blue-lit cousins, e-cigarettes, are being marketed to children and there are no regulations preventing that, said U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal and others on Monday.
"They are pitched to kids, luring them into lifetimes of addiction and disease," said Blumenthal at a press conference at Hill Regional Career High School on Legion Avenue. "And the fact of the matter is, they are not candy, not toys, not safe, and the reason is they have high nicotine levels. … They are a gateway to tobacco use. They are clearly a device that lures kids into nicotine addiction."
E-hookahs are different from e-cigarettes only in their colors and flavors. There have been no regulations published for either one, so there is nothing to prevent sales to children, Blumenthal said.
"What we want is, and we're writing the president to say to him," he said, "issue the regulations that have been drafted by the Food and Drug Administration that will restrict marketing of these devices to children. The regulations have been drafted; they would restrict marketing; they would stop this kind of slick pitch to kids."
U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3, described how, years ago, "when we addressed the issue of smoking I was telling folks that we uncovered data that the tobacco industry had, in its own words, defined its market. … That you needed to focus in on a new market and that market began at age 12." The most notorious example was Joe Camel, a cartoon advertising Camel cigarettes.
"Every day in America more than 3,200 teenagers under 18 smoke their first cigarette; 2,100 youth and young adults become daily cigarette smokers," DeLauro said. Referring to the e-hookahs, she said, "The packaging is just brilliant, it really is; it's attractive, it's fun, makes you feel cool that you've got this in your hands, and it's really very, very slick … which the industry is very good at."
Benjamin Toll, director of the tobacco treatment program at Yale Cancer Center and Smilow Cancer Hospital, described how it's unknown what kinds of chemicals are in e-cigarettes, which rely on water vapor to deliver nicotine to the lungs. "Smoke has over 7,000 chemicals and many of these are very dangerous chemicals, like arsenic and beryllium cadmium," Toll said. "At least 60 of these chemicals cause cancer. Tobacco is the single largest preventable cause of cancer by far."
Toll said evidence from the United Kingdom has shown "that there's variability in the amount of nicotine coming from these products both … across products and within products. So the exact same brand may be different per unit." E-cigarettes cost $10 to $15 each but must be refilled with liquid nicotine.
Toll said that in 2011, 3.1 percent of children 6 to 12 years old had used e-cigarettes. "In 2012, that went to 6.5 percent."
He said if an adult tells him he wants to use an e-cigarette to stop smoking cigarettes, "I'll tell them the safety is unclear" and nicotine patches are proven safe. "I'm not comfortable telling them to use it because … it's unclear if these things cause lung problems."
Will Clark, chief operating officer of the New Haven Public Schools, said children are "bombarded with this kind of marketing … that is a step into the gateway into nicotine.
"From the economic impacts, the social impacts, it is really distasteful that these products are marketed to our children," Clark said.