Jay Inslee orders state ban on flavored vaping products amid growing health concerns
Flavored vaping products would be banned in Washington state under an executive order Gov. Jay Inslee signed Friday.
Washington has had seven cases of severe lung illness linked to the use of vaping products, with one in Pierce County and two in King County. The state Board of Health plans to take action on the governor’s emergency rules at its Oct. 9 meeting. Inslee said if the board approves, the ban would take effect the following day and included flavored products containing cannabis-derived THC sold at state-regulated marijuana retail stores.
Vaping devices — purchased as JUULs, e-cigarettes, e-cigs, vapes, e-hookahs, vape pens, mods, tanks or electronic nicotine delivery systems — can contain nicotine, cannabis or other substances such as flavoring agents and chemicals.
The governor also directed the health department and the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board to:
▪ Ban the sale of vaping products that contain the sources or causes of the acute lung illnesses once they are determined and also remove those products from stores.
▪ Draft governor-requested legislation for the 2020 session to permanently ban flavored vaping products, require disclosure of ingredients in vaping products and clarify the state’s authority in responding to situations when there’s harm or risk to the public but the specific cause has not been determined.
▪ Warn consumers about the risks of vaping products and encourage health providers to report all suspected cases of severe lung illnesses tied to their use.
“We need to warn the public that no federal government or state government or local government has tested these products to give you any assurance that they’re safe,” Inslee said. “If I had a loved one, I would tell them right now, `You are just playing dice with your lungs’ by using these products.”
Marco Hoffman, owner of Super Vape’z stores in Lakewood, Puyallup and Spanaway and also a manufacturer of e-liquid used in vaping products, said sales of flavored products were brisk Friday as news spread of Inslee’s move.
Hoffman said the executive order banning flavors is “totally irrelevant from the actual problem,” which he said appears to center around people using counterfeit or black-market products that contain solvents. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration have warned people about modifying e-cigarette products or lacing them with any substances “that are not intended by the manufacturer.”
“We have done nothing but try to sell — we hoped that it could have been a better or safer alternative to selling cigarettes. No one in all these years has had any issues with our e-liquid. We’re a manufacturer. We’re registered with the FDA, and all of my ingredients have been uploaded to the FDA,” Hoffman said.
State Rep. Joe Schmick, R-Colfax, said in a written statement there is a sense of urgency to identify the ingredient, or ingredients, causing the severe lung illnesses.
“This is certainly something we are concerned about. However, the governor’s ban does nothing for the products that can be purchased on the street. This won’t affect the black-market producers,” said Schmick, who is the ranking Republican on the House Health Care and Wellness Committee.
Inslee, speaking at a press conference in Seattle, said he wanted to go farther under the executive order but was constrained by the state’s legal authority.
“Our law has some ambiguity about our ability to prohibit certain products without a necessary tie to a particular chemical,” he said, adding that the Legislature would have not have those constraints. “Rather than test that in the courts, we thought this was the thing to do today to prevent this gateway addiction of our young people.”
The CDC and FDA are conducting a multi-state investigation of an outbreak of severe lung disease associated with the use of vaping devices/e-cigarette products. There are 805 lung injury cases reported from 46 states and 13 deaths have been confirmed in 10 states, including two in Oregon and two in California.
The CDC said the latest findings from the investigation into lung injuries suggest products containing THC play a role in the outbreak. THC is the psychoactive compound of marijuana that produces the “high.”
Rick Garza, director of the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board, noted that illnesses have arisen from vaping products that contain THC only and nicotine only.
The staff of the Liquor and Cannabis Board has met with leaders of the regulated cannabis industry to learn more about how vaping products with THC are processed and where additives are sourced, Garza said.
“In our meetings, it became apparent that vaping additives come from many different sources. Although products are tested, they’re only tested for those elements required by the Liquor and Cannabis Board and the Department of Health — potency, moisture, pesticides, heavy metals,” he said.
Garza said the state is notifying cannabis licensees that the state will require manufacturers of THC vaping products to disclose all compounds including ingredients, solvents and additives used in production and processing.
“We will compile this information until the sources of the illness are found. With this information at hand, should we have a single cause that is identified, we can then prepare recall for product in our cannabis retail marketplace,” he said.
The Liquor and Cannabis Board also is working with the state health department on a warning sign about the health risks of vaping that retailers will be required to display if they sell products containing THC.
In a written statement, Vicki Christophersen, executive director of the Washington CannaBusiness Association, a trade group for the state-regulated businesess, said: “We support all scientifically driven responses to discover and eliminate the cause of vaping-related illness, so while we do not believe that the Governor’s announcement of a total ban is based on any investigative results that have been publicly available, we do respect the Governor’s focus on public safety as the motivation for his decision to issue this temporary ban.”
Earlier this year, Inslee signed a bill into law to raise the smoking and vaping age from 18 years old to 21. The new law takes effect Jan. 1, 2020.
“That was good and necessary, but it was not enough. I am confident this executive order will save lives. I am confident it will save children from a lifetime of nicotine addiction. I am confident it will reduce this epidemic of youthful vaping that today is driving parents and grandparents crazy around the state of Washington,” Inslee said.
Sen. Patty Kuderer, D-Bellevue, said she will work with Inslee’s office on a bill to permanently ban flavored vaping products. Sen. Karen Keiser, D-Des Moines, plans to file a bill to make labeling requirements on vaping products more strict. State Rep. Gerry Pollet, a Seattle Democrat, is working on legislation that the House will consider.
“I’ve heard heartfelt stories from adults who are trying to quit smoking and that vaping has helped them,” said Kuderer. “I’ve also had teens in my office concerned about their peers who are addicted to nicotine — some as young as sixth grade. The truth is these flavors are designed to target young people, to hook an entire new generation of people on nicotine.”
This story was originally published September 27, 2019 at 11:27 AM.
