DETROIT _ Michigan's health department accelerated its crackdown on flavored vaping products by ordering retailers to rid their shelves of them in 14 days instead of 30 days under emergency rules released Wednesday.
The rules slash the window for compliance by more than half, or 16 days. The state did not indicate why it changed its initial decision to give retailers 30 days from the issuance of the emergency rules.
The flavored vaping ban announced in early September by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer would prohibit the sale of all flavored e-cigarette products, with the exception of tobacco-flavored products, to combat a reported increase in youth usage of the product.
Since Whitmer's announcement, President Donald Trump and California Gov. Gavin Newsom have announced similar plans. New York leapfrogged Michigan and on Tuesday became the first state to implement its emergency flavored vaping ban after a vote by its Public Health and Health Planning Council.
"For too long, companies have gotten our kids hooked on nicotine by marketing candy-flavored vaping products as safe," Whitmer said in a statement. "That ends today. This bold action will protect our kids and our overall public health."
The vaping industry has been critical of the ban and what it may mean for smoking cessation efforts in Michigan.
A group of manufacturers and retailers in Michigan have plans to challenge the rules, specifically the implementation of the guidelines through executive order, said Gregory Conley, of the American Vaping Association, a nonprofit advocating for vaping as a smoking cessation tool.
"We don't think she has the authority to do this, and there will be a lawsuit seeking a preliminary injunction filed before this can take effect," Conley said. "They aren't elected to make unilateral decisions to ban products. Imagine what else a governor could ban if this is approved by the Michigan court system?"
The rules would apply to online and other remote sales methods as well as to the roughly 200 shops in Michigan.
In addition to banning the sale of flavored products, businesses would be prohibited, where possible, from advertising for vaping products within 25 feet of the point of sale or 25 feet from candy, food or drink. Violations of the rule would be treated as misdemeanors, punishable by up to six months in jail and/or a $200 fine.
The rules filed Wednesday appear to nix a provision in an earlier draft that would presume a person in possession of four or more flavored vaping products has "the intent to sell."
The emergency rules filed Wednesday are effective for 180 days and could be extended an additional six months. Along with the emergency rules, the department will begin promulgating permanent rules to govern e-cigarettes.
The Legislature in June passed laws that would prohibit kids from smoking e-cigarettes. Although signing them, Whitmer criticized them as not going far enough.
Her flavored vaping ban has been met with strong opposition from the vaping industry, which has argued that vaping flavors are part of what attract people to the product as a way to quit smoking combustible cigarettes.
"Tobacco flavors are awful," Conley said. "There is a reason why fruit and sweet flavors are the most popular flavors with ex-smokers."
Critics also have pointed toward inconsistencies in state law that prohibit flavored vaping products, but leave flavored combustible cigars and cigarettes on store shelves and edible marijuana products in provisioning centers.
