Supporters of electronic smoking devices gathered at the Capitol on Tuesday for the third time in less than a week to oppose proposed measures that would highly tax, regulate or ban the increasingly popular products.

Members of the Senate Commerce and Consumer Protection and Judiciary and Labor committees on Tuesday considered a bill that would ban the sale of any flavored tobacco product — including menthol products and electronic smoking devices — on the basis that tobacco companies traditionally market flavored products to youth. Most of the testimony, however, focused solely on the potential merits and/or dangers associated with electronic cigarette use.

While e-cigarette proponents see the products as valuable smoking cessation tools, anti-smoking and health advocates testified they can have the opposite effect on youth.

"For years we have been telling youth that smoking is bad, that tobacco companies have been targeting them with products that are harmful to them, especially with flavored products," testified Lleliena Loynaz, who works with The Real Message — a group that started about 14 years ago with youths wanting to fight the tobacco industry’s manipulation of children. "So now we are going back on our word; we are replacing one form of smoking with another and telling our youth that e-cigarettes are different, that they are not harmful, that they are safe for you. … This is hypocritical at best."

Cory Smith, owner and operator of Volcano Fine Electronic Cigarettes — the state’s largest manufacturer and retailer of e-cigarettes — testified that the measure, as proposed, would kill the industry because it would serve as a "de facto ban" on the products, which all contain flavored liquid.

Others said that banning the liquid would either force people to make it on their own or to go back to smoking traditional cigarettes.

"For every e-cigarette user that stops e-cigs because of too many restrictions, that’s one more person that potentially will start using tobacco again, and the state now has to spend more money on trying to get them back off of cigarettes using methods that in most cases did not work for them in the past," Sean Anderson, owner of Black Lava Vape on Hawaii island, told the committees.

Sen. Rosalyn H. Baker (D, West Maui-South Maui), who introduced the bill and serves as chairwoman of the Commerce and Consumer Protection Committee, said during a decision-making session after the hearing that the committees would pass the bill but remove the mention of electronic cigarettes. She cautioned, however, that her decision didn’t mean she would back down from attempting to legislate the currently unregulated devices.

"I don’t want the e-cigarette folks to think that this is necessarily a win for you," Baker told the crowd. "I just think that in terms of how this measure is constructed that this may not be the best vehicle to get at some of the concerns that people have."

The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled in 2010 that the Food and Drug Administration should regulate e-cigarettes as tobacco products under the Tobacco Act, rather than as drug delivery devices, but the administration has yet to implement regulations.

"We do not regulate nor inspect the production of these products, so it is also an unregulated product right now," Lola Irvin of the state Department of Health told the committees. "So what may be promoted as cessation products are not FDA-approved, and we currently are not aware of how these things are being manufactured locally and then promoted."

On Monday the Senate Health and Commerce and Consumer Protection committees agreed to keep a different bill alive, also introduced by Baker, that proposes several measures aimed at regulating Hawaii’s ballooning market for e-cigarettes.

Senate Bill 2495 would restrict the sale of electronic smoking devices to stores that hold a retail tobacco permit; prohibit electronic smoking devices in all workplaces and public areas; and require that wholesalers, dealers and retailers of electronic smoking devices obtain separate licenses from the Department of Health.

E-cig supporters crowded a hearing room at the state Capitol on Friday to oppose the measure, but legislators heard only their plea to further discuss the rate at which the popular battery-operated gadgets should be taxed.

"We don’t want to put people out of business because we see the value to use these devices as kind of a countermeasure to people smoking cigarettes," Sen. Josh Green (D, Naalehu-Kailua-Kona), chairman of the Senate Health Committee, told people who gathered Monday for the committees’ decision-making hearing. "We want to be respectful of that. But we don’t think there should be no tax (in) the measure."

The committees voted to move the measure along in the legislative process with no set tax rate. It, along with Senate Bill 2222, will be considered next by the Senate Ways and Means Committee.