Vape News – New York Politicians Have “Blood On Their Hands” | DC To Ban Flavours Next? | Plus Calls For UK To Ban Them Too!

Vaping News Headlines

New York Bans Flavoured E-Liquids and Pods | District Of Columbia To Follow | Call For UK To Ban Flavours

New York Falls and DC Could Be Next

Despite campaigners calling for a reverse of the New York flavour ban the bill has passed and now the District of Columbia looks likely to be next.

More on the two anti-vape bills from DC in a moment.

Vape Shop owners in NY now have just 90 days to remove all flavoured e-liquids and pods from sale – except tobacco and menthol – or face both criminal and civil prosecution.

Reacting to the ban the American Vaping Association said the politicians now have:

Blood on their hands…

Indeed they do.

Only two members of the council voted to stop the ban – Dr. Howard S. Berliner (Director of Health Policy for the Service Employees International Union) and Dr. Glenn Martin (an associate dean at Mount Sinai School of Medicine).

Dr Martin said he felt the ban was wrong and amounted to a “big public health experiment” adding:

I’m sorry, I’m just not convinced this is an emergency.

Insiders say up to 700 businesses in the New York state will be affected resulting in a huge number of job losses.

Governor Cuomo was unrepentant and even had the audacity to say:

Is vaping better than smoking?

Technically yes.

But so what?

Words fail me.

Gregory Conley, President of the American Vaping Association had plenty of words to say on the matter:

Prohibition has never worked in this country and it will once again fail miserably in the State of New York.

There is blood on the hands of the un-elected bureaucrats who fiddled with their phones while members of the public explained how this ban would cause disastrous public health consequences.

Make no mistake about, a flavor ban will send a significant number of adult vapers back to smoking, which is an outcome that even the American Cancer Society recently said would be disastrous.

…A ban on flavored vaping products will do absolutely nothing to address the very real and immediate public health emergency of contaminated marijuana oil cartridges sending New Yorkers to the hospital.

He also had some advice for shell shocked vapers:

We have a message for the vapers of New York — please do not relapse to smoking. Visit your local vape shop and find out what their plans are.

If it comes to it, there is nothing illegal about you as a consumer importing products into the state. If you look hard enough, you will find a vaper outside New York willing to risk jail time to make sure craven un-elected bureaucrats aren’t allowed to send you back to smoking.

In the end, today’s vote was not about health.

It was about protecting $1 billion a year in New York cigarette tax revenue. We look forward to supporting litigation to overturn this illegal and harmful ban.

Shameful and criminal is all I can say – absolutely disgusting.

DC Next To Ban Flavours?

There’s two anti-vape bills going through DC council right now one to completely ban flavours – whilst the other would mean e-cigs could only be sold in pharmacies!

Yes really.

Council member Mary Cheh wants to see a complete ban of all flavoured e-liquid and pods and given the support from her colleagues that bill looks set to pass into law in the very near future.

She of course is doing it to “protect the children”:

Over the past few years, e-cigarette use has exploded among young people and continues to rise at an exponential pace.

The e-cigarette industry has built this youth market by targeting children through advertising and widely available flavored products.

Further, as the popularity of these addictive products continues to grow, we’ve seen the proliferation of e-cigarette stores appear across the District without regard to the proximity to our schools or spaces intended specifically for children.

The federal government has recently indicated its intent to also ban flavored e-liquids, but we cannot wait for the federal government to act while flavors such as cotton candy and gummy bear e-cigarettes remain on District shelves.

*sighs*

Bill Would Mean Vape Devices On Prescription Only!

If that wasn’t enough Council member Vincent Gray is pushing a bill that would mean no one in the state could purchase a vape device without a prescription!

He told the media:

Until more is known about the long-term adverse health impact of vaping, any use of electronic smoking devices and vaping products should be carefully monitored by a physician though a prescription.

OMFG – they’ve totally lost the plot over there!

And meanwhile – lit tobacco is of course still on sale across the country.

Shame on them all.

UK Urged To Follow and Ban Flavours!

European health officials are urging the UK to ban all flavoured e-liquids and pods.

Not only that, but the soon to retire chief medical officer of England, Prof Dame Sally Davies, has said:

Is this a ticking time bomb?

Will they turn out to have long-term consequences?

The dame is out of step and out of touch and her retirement can’t come quick enough!

However it’s the European Respiratory Society Tobacco Control Committee – a body made up of medical experts and scientists that is urging the UK to ban all flavours.

Chair of the group, Professor Charlotta Pisinger, said:

In Europe we have banned flavours from cigarettes because we know it attracts young people to smoking.

Cigarettes should taste like cigarettes not like candy.

E-cigarettes taste like candy and, frequently, we see in small shops where they are sold, e-cigarettes on one side and candy on the other.

Of course it attracts children.

I know opponents will say flavours are essential because there will be heavy smokers who want to quit with e-cigarettes and they will not find it as attractive, but we have to think about the new generation of young people so that they don’t get addicted to these products.

It is much more important that we don’t experience a new epidemic of e-cigarettes.

We know there is substantial evidence that use of e-cigarettes increases the risk of smoking conventional cigarettes.

So it will also kick start a new smoking epidemic.

For an ‘expert’ the lady is ill informed to say the very least.

The fact of the matter is vaping is NOT a gateway to smoking.

And I’m sick to death of rebuffing the absolute BS that e-liquid companies market to children – FFS I need a holiday!

OK this is no laughing matter – but man this is beginning to get me cross…and breathe…

Thankfully Martin Dockrell from Public Health England was the voice of reason:

Banning flavours would likely provoke vapers to relapse back to smoking, leading to more adult smoking role models for young people, which we know is the key driver in young people starting to smoke.

Precisely!

And just to be clear here’s what PHE has said about vaping just a couple of days ago:

…More Vaping News on Sunday – let’s hope some of it’s good.