RIDOH announces 120-day ban
on flavored e-cigarette sales

THE R.I. DEPARTMENT of Health announced Friday the sale of flavored e-cigarettes will be banned in Rhode Island for 120 days. / PBN FILE PHOTO/ MICHAEL SALERNO

PROVIDENCE – The R.I. Department of Health announced Friday emergency health regulations immediately banning the sale of flavored e-cigarettes for 120 days.

During this period, manufacturing, distributing, sale or offer for sale of flavored e-cigarettes will be prohibited in the Ocean State, according to a news release from the state Health Department. The ban can be extended for an additional 60 days if needed. However, compassion centers offering THC-based vaping products to registered medical-marijuana patients and licensed cultivators are exempt from the ban.

The order comes more than a week after Gov. Gina M. Raimondo ordered the department to issue such a ban, and other states such as Massachusetts, Michigan and New York issued similar prohibitions of e-cigarette sales.

According to the release, about 1 in 5 high school students in Rhode Island reportedly used e-cigarettes and approximately 15% of middle school students reportedly “experimented” with them. A “majority” of young e-cigarette users reportedly prefer flavored products and flavors are a “primary reason” for them using the products.

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“That’s why in Rhode Island we’re taking action to ensure that companies can no longer market these products with colorful packaging and candy-based flavors,” Raimondo said in a statement. “This is a public health crisis, and the regulations announced today will help to protect our kids’ health.”

Health Department Director Dr. Nicole Alexander-Scott said this ban will help the state to prevent young people from being exposed to “immediate nicotine health harms” and “becoming cigarette smokers in the future.”

James Bessette is a PBN staff writer. Email him at Research@PBN.com.

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