54
TOBACCO BUSINESS
MARCH/APRIL 2014
Las Vegas Convention Center
South Hall 1
January 29 – 30, 2014
Tobacco Plus Convenience
Expo Highlights
Formerly known as TPE, the TPC Expo wowed attendees with exciting
educational seminars and a bustling trade show floor.
B
igger than ever, this year’s
Tobacco Plus Convenience
Expo welcomed attendees
with a whopping 36,000 square
feet of exhibits showcasing tobacco
and tobacco-related products and
accessories, including a wide array of
e-cigarettes. In addition to browsing
innovative, profit-boosting products,
attendees enjoyed a gala opening
reception at the Sky Villa on the
30th floor of the Las Vegas Hotel, as
well as seminars on the future of the
emerging e-cigarette category and
on tobacco retailing trends, as well as
peer-to-peer roundtable discussions
on product categories.
A sold-out panel discussion on the
future of e-cigarettes kicked off the
show on January 29, with panelists
from four of the category’s leading
associations offering their insights on
regulatory issues facing the e-cigarette
industry. Several of the panelists
made predictions concerning the
FDA’s much-anticipated proposed
regulations for electronic cigarettes. “I
expect to see flavor restriction, some
age restrictions, maybe some attempts
to limit nicotine density as well as
restrict the fill-your-own products,”
Bill Bartkowski, president of VapAria
Corporation, told attendees.“Whether
that survives [the] public comment
period remains to be seen.”
Panelist Linc Williams, cofounder of
the American E-Liquid Manufacturing
Standards
Association
(AEMSA),
expressed a pessimistic outlook,
suggesting that the FDA might well
look to impose the same regulatory
requirements on e-cigarettes that they
are demanding of traditional cigarettes,
which would potentially decimate the
industry. “I would like to see the FDA
come up with regulations that are
narrowly focused on manufacturing
quality standards…as well as transparency
so that the public can have confidence
in [product quality],” said Williams.
“We also want to see a national age
requirement so that [varying regulation]
jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction goes away.
But what I expect the FDA to say is that
[the same good manufacturing practices
required of traditional cigarettes] are
necessary and then spend the next five
years trying to define what that means.”
Panelist Cynthia Cabrera, executive
director of Smoke-Free Alternatives
Trade Association (SFATA), expressed
the view that for this very reason the
e-cigarette category should seek to look
to designate itself as a separate class
of product. “We don’t actually agree
that electronic cigarettes are a tobacco
product,” she said. “This is a much newer,
viable alternative that could exist in its
own ecosystem and should not be treated
like [a] tobacco product by the FDA.”
Panelist Thomas Kiklas, representing
the Tobacco Vapor Electronic Cigarette
Association, countered that there are only
two options: being regulated as a medical
device or as a tobacco product. “Our
position is that we are a tobacco cigarette
with slight improvement,” said Kiklas,
who noted that taking the position that
e-cigarettes are a simple technology that’s
been around for a long time will ease its
regulatory path.
