Ruling On Massachusetts Vaping Ban Expected Monday

BOSTON — A Suffolk County superior court judge is expected to issue a ruling Monday on whether to continue the Baker administration's four-month, emergency ban on vaping products. At a hearing Friday, Judge Douglas Wilkins heard testimony from Massachusetts Public Health Commissioner Monica Bharel and Dr. Michael Siegel, a professor at the Boston University School of Public Health who opposed the ban.

At one point during Friday's hearing, Bharel agreed with an attorney for the vaping industry when he asked said that the youth vaping epidemic cited by Baker was not a public health "emergency." According to the Boston Herald, which first reported this story, Bharel said she had referred to youth vaping as a "public health epidemic."

Siegel, meanwhile, testified the ban would fuel a black market of vaping products and drive some ex-smokers who used the devices to quit back to cigarettes. The Herald reported that Siegel was not compensated for his testimony by the vaping industry.

Gov. Charlie Baker imposed the ban last month, saying vaping was a "public health emergency" after dozens of cases of respiratory disease associated with vaping were reported to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. A Danvers business owner filed a lawsuit challenging the ban two days later, and that lawsuit was immediately followed by others from electronic cigarette makers and other retailers that sell the products.

To date, there have been 33 deaths, including one in Massachusetts, linked to vaping. There have also been 1,479 lung-injury cases reported nationwide. Siegel told the Herald he believed the "overwhelming majority" of fatalities could be linked to using the products to ingest THC and not nicotine.