It has been warned about for some time, but now it has finally happened. A 1-year old child died Dec. 9 after he discovered a bottle of liquid nicotine and drank from it.

The child is from Fort Plain, in the state of New York. After the child had become unresponsive, the parents called an ambulance, but he was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at the hospital. The police say that the investigation is ongoing.

The police have confirmed that the boy did drink from the bottle, but it is uncertain how the child obtained it. Police have not yet released the identity of the boy.

The bottle is believed to be a refill nicotine bottle for e-cigarettes, although it is not entirely certain that the bottle in question was for that purpose. Police have confirmed, however, that the bottle did not have a child-proof cap.

There has been an ongoing political battle over the fact that these refill bottles do not have child-proof caps. Since the child’s death politicians in New York have urged the governor afresh that a bill which was already passed in June, which would require child-proof caps on bottles of nicotine, be signed into law. It is hoped that Governor Andrew Cuomo will be signing the bill into law sometime before the month’s end.

Other groups have also jumped on the bandwagon in encouraging child-proof caps on bottles of liquid nicotine on a nation-wide basis. The American Association of Poison Control Centers is pushing for such an action, and the  Child Nicotine Poisoning Prevention Act of 2014 passed recently. If passed, the new bill could push the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission to make these caps mandatory on all bottles of liquid nicotine sold in the U.S.

Another law in New York that needs to be made is who can buy bottles of liquid nicotine. It is currently illegal for anyone under the age of 18 to buy e-cigarettes, but there are no such limitations on buying bottles of liquid nicotine.

There is no doubt that liquid nicotine is poisonous and needs to be kept from young children. There have been 3,638 cases in the U.S. of children becoming sick because of ingesting it. What is even worse, is that it is even being sold in various fruit or candy flavors, which are certain to be more attractive to young people.

New studies are also coming out indicating that e-cigarettes are thought to be a gateway drug. The use of e-cigarettes among teenagers has risen dramatically. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) conducted a National Youth Tobacco Survey in 2012 and discovered that as many as 10 percent of U.S. teens tried e-cigarettes in 2012, which is more than twice the 4.7 percent in 2011.

There is also no doubt that nicotine in any form is addictive. As many as 40 states have already banned selling e-cigarettes to those under 18. Besides being addictive, it can also cause improper development of the brain in the adolescent.

The CDC says that in the remaining 10 states there are as many as 16 million children who can legally buy e-cigarettes. This means that they may also need to have access to liquid nicotine. Certainly some additional laws need to be passed to protect the nation’s young people.