New York will ban flavoured e-cigarettes after officials linked a nationwide spate of deadly lung illnesses to vaping.
Andrew Cuomo, the state’s governor, said that Howard Zucker, New York’s health commissioner, would recommend a formal ban during an emergency meeting of health officials.
“Manufacturers of fruit and candy-flavoured e-cigarettes are intentionally and recklessly targeting young people, and today we’re taking action to put an end to it,” he said on Sunday.
“These are obviously targeted to young people and highly effective at targeting young people.”
The emergency regulations, issued by New York’s public health and health planning council, are likely to go into effect immediately.
More than 450 cases of lung illness potentially linked to flavoured e-cigarettes have been reported in the US, according to the Centres of Disease Control and Prevention.
At least six confirmed deaths have been caused by the illnesses.
Researchers are still trying to understand what causes patients to contract the illness. Other than vaping in general, a further common link is yet to be found.
Melodi Pirzada, chief paediatric pulmonologist at NYU Winthrop Hospital in New York, described the outbreak as ”becoming an epidemic”.
“Something is very wrong,” she said, according to The New York Times.
Officials have warned the public to avoid inhaling vitamin E acetate, an ingredient found in some vaping products.
A federal investigation into vaping-related lung illnesses is ongoing and has not identified the cause of the outbreak – though a number of patients have reported using e-cigarettes with cannabis-related products, such as THC.