VAPING
A Bad Summer for Vaping It was one bad headline after another, but the worst might have been the first one: The Ban on the Bay in San Francisco. By Bob Crew, London Correspondent lectronic cigarettes took a beating from June to September, with the discovery of THC contamination, Michigan’s ban on flavored e-cigarettes and the President Trump’s announcement that vaping has problems and he thinks something has to be done about them. But the Ban on the Bay back in June started it all off, and there are still some lessons to be learned from it. TI Contributor Crew shares his insights as to the attempted prohibition of vapes last June in San Francisco. The San Francisco, Cal., board voted (unanimously) in June to seek a ban on local stores and other retail outlets from selling vaporizers. At the
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same time, the board made it illegal for online retailers to deliver to addresses in the city. The ban did not go into immediate effect. It has to be supported by asyet unwritten legislation, and that is expected to take seven months under Californian state law. In that time, there could be legal challenges; You would certainly expect one to come from Juul Labs, which has been embarrassed by this action taking place in the city that is Juul’s corporate home. Juul has responded that an e-cig ban will drive smokers back to less healthy tobacco-cigarettes and also “create a thriving black market.” But San Fran-
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cisco’s Mayor, London Breed, has said that she will sign off on the proposed legislation come what may, and she has been praised for this. Anti-vaping activists argue that e-cig firms are deliberately targeting young people by offering them flavored products designed to appeal to them, whilst others contend that more scientific investigation into the health effects is needed. There is also the objection that vaping encourages young people to switch to cigarettes when they might otherwise quit smoking altogether. But the industry is waiting for evidence to support this. FDA Paved the Way Earlier this year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued newly proposed guidelines for giving e-cig companies until 2021 to apply to have their e-cigarette products evaluated. So it is perhaps hardly surprising that there is still some question and/ or concern about the possible health effects of vaping, seeing as the FDA has
