Rhode Island Monthly April 2020 | Page 33

CityState:  Reporter Gina Raimondo issued an executive order for a 120-day ban on the sale of flavored e-cigarettes and directed the state depart- ment of health to promulgate emergency regulations to that effect. The health department issued temporary regulations prohibiting the sale or manufacture of flavored vaping products and convened a vaping advisory committee to guide future policy. In January, the health department extended the temporary ban for another two months, and expects to issue permanent regulations in April. “In 2017, we had some data and we were concerned,” says James Rajotte, chief of the health department’s Center for Health Promotion. “In 2018, the Surgeon General declared vaping a youth epidemic and action needed to be taken. And then we got these 2019 num- bers that were more alarming than we previously thought.” Groups like the American Lung Asso- ciation support the ban “as a good first step,” the organization said in a state- ment. “But it doesn’t go far enough.  Flavors hook kids. Legislators must act to end the sale of all flavored tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, men- thol cigarettes, flavored cigars and other flavored tobacco products, in order to protect our youth from a lifetime of addiction and disease.” The policy prescriptions are also get- ting significant pushback from sellers and adult users who argue that vaping is safe — or at least safer than smoking — and that bans don’t work. “Prohibition is a mistake,” says Jona- than Shaer, executive director of the New England Convenience Store and Energy Marketers Association, which represents 480 retailers in Rhode Island. “These products have demand, and fur- ther demand among youth. A ban will continue to push all users to markets that are not regulated, not taxed, not transparent and, by virtue of that, more dangerous. That’s what happened with the black-market THC vapes and that’s where people get sick.” In October, the Centers for Disease Control coined the term EVALI (e-ciga- rette or vaping product use-associated lung injury) to describe a constellation of symptoms — shortness of breath, fever, cough, chest pain, vomiting, abdominal 90 Battery Lane | Jamestown MLS #1244965 | $6,250,000 mottandchace.com RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY l APRIL 2020     31