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AFP
Michigan has become the first US state to ban flavoured e-cigarettes as part of efforts to curb youth vaping.
The ban goes into effect in the next 30 days and bars the sale of any flavoured vaping products in retail stores and online.
“My number one priority is keeping our kids safe,” said Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer in a statement.
The measure will last six months, with the possibility of an extension and comes amid other action against vaping.
Ms Whitmer also banned what she described as misleading marketing of such products, prohibiting adverts that describe vaping products as “clean”, “safe” or “healthy”.
“We’ve seen an explosive increase in the number of Michigan kids exposed to vaping products,” said Joneigh Khaldun, chief medical executive for Michigan. “This is a public health crisis.”
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In just one year – from 2017 to 2018 – the US Food and Drug Administration reported a 78% jump in school students vaping.
The move by Michigan’s governor is the latest action in the US against e-cigarettes.
In June, San Francisco became the first US city to ban sales of e-cigarettes and lawmakers in Boulder, Colorado, passed a similar ban last week.
Reacting to the ban, Greg Conley, president of the American Vaping Association, called it a “shameless attempt at backdoor prohibition will close down several hundred Michigan small businesses and could send tens of thousands of ex-smokers back to deadly combustible cigarettes.
“These businesses and their customers will not go down without a fight.”