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With the health effects of vaping still unclear, San Francisco has decided to ban the sale of e-cigarettes and became the first US city to do so.
Stores are now banned from selling the vaporizers and the ban has also made it illegal for online retailers to deliver vaping products to addresses in San Francisco.
Incidentally, Juul Labs, which has a majority of e-cigarette market share in the user and is the most popular brand, calls San Francisco home.
Juul criticized the ban, saying it will force smokers to go back to cigarettes and “create a thriving black market.”
London Breed, San Francisco’s mayor, has 10 days to sign the legislation but already indicated that she will. Seven months after it is signed, the law will be enforced. However, there are reports that c-cigarette companies may challenge the law in court.
One common criticism by anti-vaping activists is that firms offer flavored products in order to deliberately target young people. Critics say that more scientific investigation on the health impacts of vaping is needed. They add that vaping offers a path for young people to switch to cigarettes.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had come out with proposed guidelines earlier this year that gave companies until 2021 to have their e-cigarette products evaluated.
An August 2018 deadline had initially been set but the agency retracted, saying more preparation was needed.
Dennis Herrera, San Francisco’s City Attorney, had campaigned for the ban and praised the move. He cited the FDA’s “abdication of responsibility” in regulating e-cigarettes as reason enough to make the ban necessary.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention pointed towards increased e-cigarette use as the reason that the number of US teenagers who admitted to using nicotine products spiked by 36% last year.
The minimum age to purchase tobacco products is 18 years under federal law but it’s 21 in California and a few other states.
While Juul supported a cut in vaping among younger people, they said it had to be matched by tougher measures to prevent them from accessing regular cigarettes.
Juul’s product is slightly longer than a flash drive and has roughly 70% of the US vaping market.
Juul spokesman Ted Kwong said that the ban would “drive former adult smokers who successfully switched to vapor products back to deadly cigarettes” as well as discourage adult smokers from switching and will lead to a “thriving black market.”
“We have already taken the most aggressive actions in the industry to keep our products out of the hands of those underage and are taking steps to do more.”
He added that long-established tobacco products will “remain untouched by this legislation, even though they kill 40,000 Californians every year.”
Marlboro maker Altria Group has a 35% stake in Juul. The e-cigarette manufacturer has already pulled out popular flavors like mango and cucumber from stores as well as shuttered its social media accounts on Facebook and Instagram.