Westfield Health Department weighs in on vaping

Feb. 12, 2020 | Peter Currier

WESTFIELD – The laws and attitude towards vaping have shifted dramatically over the past year on the federal, state, and local levels. Massachusetts Governor Charlie D. Baker famously made the step in September to place a ban on the sales of all types of vapes while health investigators could determine the cause of mysterious lung disease outbreaks.

The ban on vapes sales was controversial, as vape shop owners were given no more than 24 hours notice that their main product was to be removed from their shelves.The ban was originally supposed to last until late January, but it was cut short to mid-December, as a bill in the state legislature called An Act Modernizing Tobacco Control passed in both houses and was subsequently signed by Baker.

The mysterious lung outbreaks, however, have since been largely blamed on contaminated illicit THC oil vape products containing Vitamin E acetate, according to the CDC. Later testing confirmed that some THC vape products in legal Massachusetts marijuana dispensaries contained detectable amounts of lead as well.

The bill banned the sale of all flavored vaping products and tobacco products, but allows for the sale of tobacco flavored, or non-flavored tobacco and vaping products. It also contained a 75 percent excise tax on tobacco and vape sales that will come into effect in June.

Westfield’s Health Department was in the middle of drafting local vaping regulations when Baker’s ban was implemented in September. Director of Public Health, Joseph Rouse, said after the ban was put in place that he was pleased with the cooperation of many of the vape shop owners in the city, as most of them had their products already cleared from their shelves before health inspectors arrived.

Although Rouse and the Board of Health were already prepared to restrict local vapes sales, they gave a fair share of criticism to the Governor and state lawmakers who passed the vape bill, as they said it does not go after the problem in the correct way and “made a mess” of the situation.

“We did very well at our last meeting(s) to isolate the problem with what was going on in our community,” said Rouse in December after the law was signed by Baker, “It was to recognize and identify that we had a problem with vaping. Specifically, with youth access and kids vaping, and then we started to hear about the deaths.”

The Board of Health’s original intention with the local regulations was to restrict the sale of vaping products to specialized stores that only or mostly sell vapes and tobacco. They wanted to remove the products from convenience stores and gas stations in the city where kids may be more likely to get their hands on it.

According to Rouse, banning flavored products but allowing convenience stores to continue selling the products, even if those stores have been given a limit of products with 35 percent nicotine, does nothing to stop the problem of kids vaping.  He and the board also criticised the fact that tobacco flavors were banned as well, including menthol cigarettes.

“When making regulations they decided to lump in tobacco with this whole recipe. Why? I don’t know,” said Rouse, “I think maybe it was a good opportunity for them to take away more and say “Oh by the way, menthol cigarettes are going to be banned along with the flavored vape products.”

He added that he does not believe it is the flavors that were the problem.

“I don’t think it makes a damned difference. I don’t think a kid cares, if they want to do their Juul, if it tastes like shoe leather or fruit flavored,” said Rouse, “For anyone to think that kids were primarily smoking or using the Juul for the flavor is a fool.”

The Board of Health signalled in their January meeting that they would continue to pursue regulations to restrict vape sales to certain stores. There is no avenue to remove the restriction of flavored vapes at the local level, as both the state bill and a new, similar federal policy overrules any local action.

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