CHICAGO and NEW YORK -- Lawmakers in two of the nation’s largest cities have mounted separate initiatives to ban most flavored e-liquids used in vaping devices, according to several reports.
In New York, a bill in the House Assembly and a separate bill in the Senate are in different stages of development, according to Lakeville, Minn.-based tobacco retail association NATO.
Assembly Bill 8688 would prohibit the sale of most flavored e-liquid products with the exception of regular and menthol. That bill went from the Assembly Health Committee and into the Codes Committee on June 5. On the Senate side, Bill 8610 would also ban most flavors, exempting only tobacco and menthol flavors. The Senate bill left the Senate Health Committee on May 31.
Meanwhile, Chicago Alderman Ed Burke proposed an ordinance in May that would ban several flavors of vape juice, including menthol, according to Vaping360. These flavors would include but are not limited to menthol, mint, wintergreen, chocolate, vanilla, honey, cocoa, “any candy, any dessert, any alcoholic beverage, any fruit, any herb or any spice.”
The Chicago proposal would not ban menthol cigarettes, flavored cigars or smokeless tobacco, according to the Germany-based vaping media website.
“Alderman Ed Burke’s proposed ordinance is nothing more than preening for moralizing, antifun busybodies,” said Jesse Hathaway, research fellow for budget and tax policy for the Heartland Institute, Arlington Heights, Ill. “Selling e-cigarettes to individuals under the age of 18 is already illegal in Illinois, so the ordinance’s aims are already addressed by existing laws.”
Photo courtesy of 6okean.
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