Given the non-stop stream of incessant misinformation and alarmist headlines about an alleged teen vaping epidemic and the recent outbreak of serious lung disease linked to vaping, it comes as no surprise that certain lawmakers would enact such drastic measures.
Michigan’s emergency ban is set to go into effect in the next 30 days, lasting six months, following which it may be renewed for another six.
Last Wednesday Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer issued an executive order which bans the sale of flavoured e-liquids across the State of Michigan. “As governor, my number one priority is keeping our kids safe,” said Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in a statement.
“And right now, companies selling vaping products are using candy flavors to hook children on nicotine and misleading claims to promote the belief that these products are safe. That ends today.”
Similarly last week, the Boulder City Council voted in favor of a new legislation which would ban all flavoured vaping products. Michigan’s emergency ban is set to go into effect in the next 30 days, lasting six months, following which it will probably be renewed for another six. At the same time, the state’s health department will be working to draft a permanent policy.
NNA: Banning E-Liquid Flavours Threatens Public Health
Meanwhile, speaking at the Global Forum on Nicotine (GFN) – an event featuring over 500 delegates from academic, research, industry and consumer organisations, which took place in Warsaw last June, the NNA and other leading experts, said that banning flavours from being sold, would be a deterrent to the increasing number of smokers who are quitting by switching to the proven safer alternatives.
“E-cigarettes are a proven safer alternative to smoking. The UK boasts 1.7 million former smokers who have converted from smoking to exclusively vaping instead. Flavours have been a big driver of that success, by distancing smokers from tobacco and providing an incentive to switch, with a wide selection of different options to suit their preferences,” said NNA Chair Martin Cullip, who hosted a briefing at the GFN on the subject.
Read Further: Time
