Health officials: Ban flavored e-cigarettes

As county health departments investigate a growing number of cases of lung disease associated with vaping, the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) reiterated its strong support for action to curb youth vaping in a letter last week to President Trump. 

The letter was signed by NACCHO CEO Lori Tremmel Freeman and Big Cities Health Coalition Executive Director Chrissie Juliano. 

“As the youth e-cigarette epidemic continues to grow and over 5 million children are currently using e-cigarettes, the time for action is now,” the letter said. “We urge the Administration to swiftly implement its plan to clear the market of all flavored e-cigarettes, without any carve-out for particular retailers.” 

As of Nov. 20, 2,290 cases of lung injury related to e-cigarette use had been reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and 47 related deaths had been confirmed. 

Trump announced in September that he would endorse a Food and Drug Administration proposal to ban the sale of non-tobacco-flavored e-cigarette products, but has backtracked since then. 

The letter comes as many county governments restrict the sale of flavored e-cigarette cartridges and others’ sue manufacturer Juul. Montgomery County, Md., Los Angeles County, Calif. and King and Skagit counties in Washington have filed suits along with the states of California and New York. The suits target the company’s marketing practices, which they allege to be deceptive and specifically targeted at youths. 

“Juul was well aware that their products would appeal to youth — driving an ever-increasing epidemic of nicotine addiction and severe lung illness, King County Executive Dow Constantine said in a statement. “The taxpayers of King County must not be stuck with the tab for a public health crisis that has lined the pockets of Juul and their shareholders.” 

Other counties are pursuing bans on the sale of vaping products in stores. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has identified a thickening agent used in THC-containing e-cigarette, or vaping, products as a common finding among fluid samples from 29 patients with vaping-related lung disease in 10 states. 

The CDC reported that this was the first time that it had detected a chemical of concern in biological samples from patients with these lung injuries. 

“These findings provide direct evidence of vitamin E acetate at the primary site of injury within the lungs.” 

County health departments did not mince words when aggressively warning residents about the dangers of vaping. In early September, the Summit County, Ohio Public Health Department told residents to “stop using any vape and/or e-cigarette devices immediately.” 

“We’re choosing to be very direct with our messaging and not dance around the issue,” said Cory Kendrick, policy and legislative affairs manager at Summit County Public Health. “We need to say what we mean. It’s a dangerous situation and it’s time we did something about it.” 

He said that approach had been much more fruitful than a more general warning the department had released two weeks before. 

“We knew this was going to be a problem, so we’ve been sounding the warning bells for some time,” Kendrick said. “Nobody picked up our first warning, then over the next few weeks, the cases doubled and we took a more direct approach. 

“It definitely made a big difference being more deliberate in our messaging rather than just issuing a general warning.”