Inslee Executive Order Bans Vaping Flavors, Additives

Friday morning, Gov. Jay Inslee instructed the Washington State Board of Health to immediately ban the sale of flavored vaping products, til further notice. These would be the flavor vials that can be purchased, from strawberry and mint to THC laden ones. Traditional nicotine only products are not included in the ban.

The ban comes about from his Executive Order, over concerns about what some officials say is an 'outbreak' of lung issues and even a few deaths allegedly related to vaping.

Health officials do not say vaping is the direct cause, but more and more evidence is pointing towards flavored additives that people are using in their e-cigs, including some that contain THC, the active ingredient in marijuana.

While many people just use nicotine, or traditional flavor liquid, growing numbers of vapers are using wide varieties of flavors. Some say these are not as heavily regulated and could be the source of the lung issues reported virtually across the country.

Inslee also called on the Board to ban specific vaping products if they are shown or known to cause any of these serious lung ailments.  However, Health Officials say the only indication leading them in this direction is that all of the lung cases in the 'outbreak' share a common thread of vaping by the victims. That's it.

There is much speculation that these flavorings often come from dubious sources, some refer to them as "Black Market" flavors, and that's why people are getting sick. Lack of quality control, as opposed to the original nicotine units.

Inslee was quoted as saying in the Executive Order release that he wishes he had come down "harder" on vaping, which is claims as mistakenly been portrayed as safer alternative to actual smoking of tobacco. However, other critics say vaping is significantly better than smoking actual tobacco (as far as the lungs are concerned). There's been a lot of discussion from both sides, but not a ton of hard medical research at least not yet.

The Health Board is slated to meet October 9 to decide next courses of action.