DES MOINES – Dawn Carlson, president the Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Stores of Iowa, which represents more than 2,000 business locations in Iowa, encouraged the state legislature to “do the right thing” and pass a bill that would restrict the sale of e-cigarettes and vapor products to those age 18 and older.

“As one of the leading retail associations in our state, the Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Stores of Iowa believes that e-cigarettes and vapor products should be age-restricted. H.F. 2109, currently pending in the Senate, would do just that by setting the minimum age of 18 to purchase e-cigarette products,” wrote Carlson in the Des Moines Register.

“As retailers, our members have an important role to play in preventing under-age access to e-cigarettes. Convenience stores are the largest retail channel for e-cigarette, with the sales of nearly $540 million in 2013 representing 75% of all brick-and-mortar sales, excluding kiosks and tobacco-only outlets,” she continued.

Carlson added that a recent FDA audit found that 94% of retailers were in compliance with existing regulations barring the sale of tobacco products to minors. “The same retailers — our members — can be equally effective in selling e-cigarette products only to adults.”

NACS recently issued a statement of position that encourages stores selling e-cigarettes to adopt, as a best practice, a policy of treating these products as age restricted and subjecting them to the same age-verification procedures as those applicable to tobacco products.