Puff Bar, Stig and Fogg get a pass from the feds, but the flavored throwaway e-cigs probably will still be illegal in the Big Apple.
The FDA ban on flavored e-cigarettes that took effect Thursday narrowly targets “cartridge-based” rechargeable nicotine vaporizers with fruit and mint flavors. The products, especially those once sold by Juul, are super-popular with high school and middle school students and have led to a nationwide vaping crisis.
The federal ban doesn’t mention one word about disposables, which are widely sold at convenience stores and gas stations across the country.
A city law that takes effect in July, though, will not only ban the sale of flavored vaping products but also “any refill, cartridge or any other component” of an e-cigarette, which appears to cover disposables.
“They are very accessible and seem to be the new buzzy product,” Dr. Karen Wilson, a tobacco researcher and pediatrician at Mount Sinai’s medical school, told the Associated Press.
Juul stopped marketing its bestselling mint and most other flavors in the US before the ban was announced in early January. Today, the company and only sells tobacco and menthol.
As of late January, slightly more than 2,700 people had been hospitalized for vaping-related illnesses in the 50 states. About 240 people in New York state have been treated, according to the state Health Department, including more than 40 in the five boroughs.
There have been 60 deaths nationwide, with at least four in New York state, including a 17-year-old from the Bronx.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced a new effort to permanently ban all flavored vaping products, including menthol, during his State of the State address. Earlier state attempts at an emergency ban are tied up in court.