Governor Andrew Cuomo Is Banning Flavored E-Cigarettes In New York

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Flavored E-Cigarettes Are About To Be Banned In New York

Andrew Cuomo, the Governor of New York, has announced an “emergency executive action” to place a ban on the sale of flavored e-cigarettes, also known as vapes.

According to reports from CBS, the executive order is going to quicken legislation that intends to eliminate deceptive marketing practices aimed at underage e-cigarette users and raise the purchasing age from 18 to 21.

“New York is confronting this crisis head-on and today we are taking another nation-leading step to combat a public health emergency,” Governor Cuomo said in a statement. “Manufacturers of fruit and candy-flavored e-cigarettes are intentionally and recklessly targeting young people, and today we’re taking action to put an end to it. At the same time, unscrupulous stores are knowingly selling vaping products to underage youth—those retailers are now on notice that we are ramping up enforcement and they will be caught and prosecuted.”

The Department of Health will work with New York state police to run undercover investigations under the Adolescent Tobacco Use Prevention Act. Per the executive order, retailers who are caught selling tobacco and vaping products to underage kids will be hit with both criminal and civil penalties.

In a press conference on Sunday morning, Cuomo announced his administration would like to start imposing the new executive order by Oct. 4.

This call for new legislation comes after multiple vape-related illnesses have been reported in New York and other states. On Sept. 11, news broke that another person died from a mysterious ilness related to electronic cigarettes. That man’s death is now at least the sixth that has been attributed to an outbreak, which has also made hundreds of others sick.