Michigan officially bans sale of flavored e-cigarettes

Andrew Teasley, a salesman at Good Guys Vape Shop, exhales vapor while using an e-cigarette in Biddeford, Maine, in a Sept. 3, 2019, file photo

In this Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2019, photo, Andrew Teasley, a salesman at Good Guys Vape Shop, exhales vapor while using an e-cigarette in Biddeford, Maine. Efforts to ban flavored e-cigarettes and reduce their appeal to youngsters have sputtered under industry pressure in over a half-dozen states this year. The industry and its lobbyists urged lawmakers to leave mint and menthol alone. A proposed ban that President Donald Trump outlined Wednesday, Sept. 11, would supersede any state inaction and includes a ban on mint and menthol. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty) APAP

Michigan retailers have 14 days to stop selling flavored nicotine tobacco products under emergency rules the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services filed Wednesday.

“Today’s filing is necessary to protect the public health,” said Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, chief medical executive and chief deputy director for health at MDHHS, in a press release.

“Youth vaping is a public health emergency and has been declared an epidemic by the U.S. surgeon general. Nicotine in e-cigarettes is harmful to developing brains and has dangerous long-term health consequences such as heart disease and cancer.”

The emergency rules, filed with the Secretary of State, are effective immediately but give businesses 14 days to comply and stop selling flavored nicotine vaping products.

The rules also ban the use of imagery representing a flavor to sell vaping products, place restrictions on how close vaping advertisements can be to a point of sale or food.

Read the full rules here.

Violators can be charged with a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail, a $200 fine, or both.

They go into effect for six months, with an option six-month extension. After that, the rules must go through the state’s rulemaking process to be made permanent. MDHHS has already initiated the permanent rulemaking process.

Whitmer announced her intent to ban flavored nicotine vaping products on Sept. 4. At the time, she said the goal was to protect children from vaping flavors created to appeal to them, like Froot Loops.

“These are things that are targeted towards children, toward getting them addicted,” she said.

Whitmer aimed to make Michigan the first state to ban flavored vaping products. But shortly after her announcement President Donald Trump announced his intent to ban them nationally, and on Tuesday New York enacted a ban.

In Michigan, Whitmer’s announcement caught lawmakers off-guard and prompted a House committee to hold a hearing on the matter. During that hearing, vaping advocates made the case e-cigarettes helped people quit using traditional tobacco cigarettes. The ban would hurt small businesses that sell vaping products, vaping advocates said.

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