Governor Gretchen Whitmer is moving to make Michigan the first state to ban flavored e-cigarettes. The Democrat announced Wednesday that she ordered the state health department to issue emergency rules. They will prohibit the sale and misleading marketing of flavored nicotine vaping products.
“This is a health crisis,” Whitmer told the Michigan News Network. “And in health crises, I have the ability to take action and we’re taking it.”
Whitmer says her top priority is keeping kids safe, and she wants to stop companies that are using candy flavors to “hook children on nicotine.”
“There are 13-year-olds that are vaping Fruit Loops right now that are doing lifelong damage and have no idea that they are engaging in a substance they are going to be addicted to, maybe for the rest of their lives,” the governor added.
The federal government and nearly every state bar the sale of e-cigarettes to minors. Whitmer says Michigan will be the first to ban flavored vaping products, including for adults. It was not immediately clear how quickly her administration would implement the rules.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
