Smoke-Free Alternatives Trade Association Statement of Principles
SFATA is a national trade association of businesses that work in, or in service of, the vapor products industry. Our members represent the utmost excellence found in the American vapor marketplace and must agree to uphold SFATA Principles as a condition of membership.
Prospective members should read the Statement of Principles and consider if SFATA is a proper fit for their own business model and personal philosophy on business *prior to applying for membership.
*Application for SFATA membership implies agreement with the Principles below and will be the standard by which all members must conduct business to continue to participate in the trade association.
SFATA is committed to providing an alternative to combustible tobacco products for adult smokers:
- SFATA and its members sell only to adults.
- SFATA and its members do not market to minors.
- SFATA and its members support a national age standard on the sale of vapor products and e-liquids that aligns with the national age of majority for other adult responsibilities such as voting, paying taxes, and serving in our U.S. military.
In order to provide the high-quality, reliable product the industry strives to create, SFATA has instituted the following standards in order to assure vapor products are appropriately marketed, packaged, and sold:
- SFATA and its members do not make any health or cessation claims in their marketing.
- SFATA and its members support packaging all e-liquids in child resistant packaging, consistent with the Poison Prevention Packaging Act and federal law.
- SFATA and its members support accurate and appropriate labeling of the products to inform the adult consumer of the contents of the package.
- SFATA and its members support the development of industry consensus standards that are consistent with the American National Standards Institute requirements.
SFATA encourages its members to:
- Prevent sales to minors by adopting a written company policy against selling to minors, training employees through a nationally recognized age-verification instruction program on how to properly ID customers, and verifying staff is properly checking identification according to the law.
- Institute expert mixing processes; including proper employee training and the use of sterile equipment and clean room procedures to avoid contamination at any point in the mixing or packaging process.
We love our small businesses!
SFATA recognizes that the science behind this new industry is growing nearly every day. We anticipate that legitimate science, conducted according proper scientific method, will continue to confirm that vapor products are an innovative and disruptive force in the marketplace that provide the potential to transition millions of Americans away from combustible cigarette smoking to a far less harmful alternative.
SFATA supports a public education campaign – both to highlight these products are intended only for adult use and to highlight their potential for adult smokers.
- We desire to see our U.S. Public Health professionals participating in truthful dissemination of evidence-based information about vapor products.
- We oppose use of false or junk science results to attempt to scare Americans away from these products.
- We do not accept Public Health’s justification of lying to American adults for the purpose of frightening minors from ever experimenting with adult products.
- We are against minors’ use of these products. But, we also believe that the deaths of 400,000+ adult Americans every year that can be avoided by encouraging smokers to switch to this technology from smoking far outweighs the concern over teen experimentation.
- We desire to see our Public Health tax dollars being used to educate adults against supplying our products to minors, to whom we will not sell. Government reports show that over 70% of minors report getting these products outside the retail sales channels, which are the only ones we can control as an industry.
SFATA supports enforcement of all laws to prevent sales to minors and considers intentional adherence to these laws a requirement for continued membership in our organization.
- Our members are encouraged to train their staffs to properly age-verify and to properly post notice age-of-purchase minimums wherever these products are sold.
- SFATA is a recognized Supporting Organization of We Card and promotes use of their store signage, training for staff, and private “secret shopping” services to assure company compliance with the laws in any given jurisdiction related to age-restricted sales.