Gov. Charlie Baker’s decision on Tuesday to order a four-month ban on the sale in Massachusetts of all vaping products, including both tobacco and marijuana electronic cigarettes, is the right move at the right time.
With vaping products accounting for deaths and serious lung illnesses both across the country and in our state, it is clear that there is something dramatically wrong with these products, which ironically have been billed as “healthy” alternatives to smoking by the vaping industry.
Gov. Baker’s declaration of a public health emergency, which promptly was approved by the state’s Public Health Council, represents a bold, first-in-the-nation executive order that we predict will be emulated in other states.
We applaud the governor for taking this action that will keep these deadly products off the market until it can be determined why they are causing such harmful effects upon their users.