In recent news, the Electronic Cigarette Industry Group (a new industry group that supports Internet sales ban) announced that the former American Lung Association Chief, Charles Connor, will be joining them as a paid consultant.
Though Senators and the state attorneys general are urging the FDA to quickly restrict the sales of electronic cigarettes, Connor isn’t. In fact, he says that e-cigarettes may be “the breakthrough product” that stomps out carcinogen-packed conventional cigarettes.
Connor was the president and CEO of the lung association from 2008 to 2012. Now, as a paid consultant for “ECIG”, he will serve as a conduit between public health experts, regulators and the booming industry, which has been estimated as $1.7 billion in U.S. sales this year.
I tried all my life to get my mother off smoking, without success,” Connor told U.S. News. “I just buried her in December due to the failure of her lungs, undoubtedly due to cigarettes. I am deeply committed to eliminating tobacco cigarettes from the American scene.
ECIG President Eric Criss said Connor’s primary role will be to “build bridges with the public health community to start a real dialog about what their concerns are.”
