Gov. Andrew Cuomo
ALBANY – Governor Andrew Cuomo announced an emergency executive action to ban the sale of flavored electronic cigarettes in New York State – the latest in a series of actions to combat the increasing number of youth using vape products, largely driven by e-cigarette companies the governor says is marketing flavors that are intended to get children addicted to nicotine.
The state health commissioner will hold an emergency meeting with the Public Health and Health Planning Council this week to ban flavored e-cigarettes.
The Governor also directed State Police and State Department of Health to immediately partner to ramp up enforcement efforts against retailers who sell to underage youth, with the possibility of criminal penalties.
Finally, the Governor announced he will advance legislation to ban deceptive marketing of e-cigarettes to teens and children.
The American Lung Association was critical of the governor’s announcement saying it doesn’t go far enough. The organization says the action does not apply to menthol flavored e-cigarettes, which with mint flavored e-cigarettes are favored by a majority of high school students.
According to the latest National Tobacco Youth Survey, e-cigarette use soared by another 32 percent among high school students from 2018-2019 -showing that 27.5 percent of high school users have used e-cigarettes in the last month. 63.9 percent of these users report using mint or menthol flavors in the last month.
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