A law that aims to reduce youth access to flavoured vape products has passed in Philadelphia
Philadelphia City Council now prohibits flavoured vape products from being sold in any stores where minors have access.
This means that only tobacco flavoured e-liquids will be available on premises that don’t have an age restriction to enter.
Vape shops and other 18+ stores may still sell flavoured products so that adults who need them can continue to use them.
Cheryl Bettigole of Philadelphia’s Department of Public Health, said the agency wanted these alternatives available for adults.
But she added that it’s about “balancing” protecting kids and helping smokers.
Bettigole said:
“We’re really trying to balance protecting kids — which has to be our top priority here — with maintaining some access for chronic smokers, who may be using these products to try to quit smoking.”
Other products affected
The ban also restricts cartridges and pods with high nicotine concentrations.
The required nicotine limit is now 20mg which is the same as in the UK.
Flavoured tobacco products such as cigars and cigarillos have also been completely banned in-line with this new legislation.
Since this legislation was introduced, JUUL has stopped selling it’s desert and mint flavour pods.
Evidence suggests that teens in the US are more likely to take up vaping than those in the UK.
Link with lung illness
Though the CDC has recently found that many ‘vaping-related’ lung illnesses affecting young people were not the result of legal e-cigarettes, Bettigole says that restricting minors’ access to flavours is still important.
She believes that the lung-illness epidemic is “just a symptom of a broader problem: nicotine addiction.”
She said:
“Fortunately, it looks like the CDC has identified the specific culprit in this outbreak.
“But we have to recognize that as long as we have millions of our teens continuing to breathe in unknown substances, there will be another outbreak.
“That’s what we’re trying to prevent here in Philadelphia.”
Source: WHYY
