
The Smoke-Free Alternatives Trade Association (SFATA) has seriously vowed to fight against misleading claims about e-cigarette and vaping products. SFATA managed to raise about $110,000 at a recent fundraising event last February in just a few hours, with the purpose being to use the money to counter misleading advertisements that have been made about e-cigs and vaping products in terms of their health effects.
The effort to demonize electronic cigarettes has been in part spurred by tobacco companies and several state-funded tobacco control groups and coalitions that have set out against e-cig products as being major health concerns. SFATA predicates its goal on stripping away misleading claims and presenting facts about what e-cigs actually do to harm anyone’s health. Plus, they will press forward in court to have such misleading ads taken down.
A substantial part of the money raised will be used to fund studies on electronic cigarettes that are objective and used to gain support politically for this industry. SFATA is dedicated to presenting the actual facts while using other tactics, such as lobby groups, to provide political pressure so that the laws are not unduly changed due to falsehoods and misrepresentations.
So far, the fight against misleading information has been performed by individuals and small groups on the internet posting on blogs and other forums in an effort to stem the tide. However, with groups like SFATA, the effort will be expanded to include litigation if necessary to prevent such misleading information that comes in part from tobacco companies from seeing the light of day.
Whether SFATA will succeed in the short term remains to be seen, however, it is true that the sales and success of e-cigs have hurt the tobacco industry. It would certainly be in their best interest to see vape products become regulated like the tobacco industry in order to curb their sales.