Vaping: Why Wait for the Evidence?

After a rash of lung illnesses, lawmakers are banning vaping products that might not have anything to do with the problem. It’s reminiscent of the push for gun control.

Underage drinking remains a nationwide problem, but there’s one approach that policymakers never consider: banning the sale of most types of alcoholic beverages to adults to keep it out of the hands of youth. That’s true even though virtually all liquor that underage people consume was originally sold at retail businesses. They typically get booze from older friends and siblings, who buy it legally.

Lawmakers never propose that “solution” because it’s wrong to punish all adults for the actions of a small number of them who provide liquor to teens. Some products — alcohol, tobacco, and guns, to name a few — are meant for adults only. Our society can never completely keep such things out of the hands of underage people who want them, but the sensible approach is to enforce laws that ban their sale to and possession by youngsters.

When it comes to vaping products, however, such good sense often is ignored. Various cities, especially in liberal enclaves in the San Francisco Bay Area, have passed new laws that would ban the sale of flavored nicotine products such as menthol cigarettes and flavored e-cigarette liquids. Now Michigan and New York have banned the sale of flavored vaping products — and the Trump administration is using the Food and Drug Administration to ban flavored e-cigarettes.

Those state bans are temporary and done via administrative action in the face of an outbreak of some troubling vaping-related illnesses. Federal health officials say that 380 cases in 36 states of a lung-related disorder are attributable to, or likely the result of, vaping. Seven people have died from the ailment, so it’s something health authorities should take seriously. But the cause of the ailment is still unclear, and there’s no evidence that any of this is tied to the flavoring in these products.

“The role of flavored vape products in the current outbreak is unknown at this time,” reports National Public Radio. “Some lawmakers and public health advocates have been pushing for flavored vape products to be banned since flavors first entered the market, out of a concern that they appeal to children. The timing of the recent move to ban flavored vape products may be linked to the current public concern about overall e-cigarette safety.”