The state governor of Massachusetts has announced that the state will place an immediate four-month ban on the sale of vaping products, The Washington Post reported.

The decision to ban all sales of vaping products for the following months is in response to the rise in popularity of vaping among young people and the cases of lung illnesses associated with e-cigarette products, which has led to nine deaths across the United States, according to the report. Officials said that the temporary ban would allow more time to investigate the 530 cases of lung illness associated with using e-cigarettes.
“The purpose of this public health emergency is to temporarily pause all sales of vaping products so that we can work with our medical experts to identify what is making people sick and how to better regulate these products to protect the health of our residents,” said Charlie Baker, Massachusetts Governor in a statement.
New York and Michigan have already implemented bans on the sale of flavoured e-cigarette products this month, and the Trump administration has announced plans to enact a similar ban nationwide.
The president of the non-profit American Vaping Association, Gregory Conley, called Massachusetts’s temporary ban “absolutely absurd,” stressing that evidence suggests that the vaping-related illnesses are linked to illegal and contaminated THC cartridges, The Washington Post reported.
Jonathan Lau, a small-business owner of two vape stores in Brighton, Massachusetts, said vaping products made close to 90 per cent of his shops’ sales and that he will probably have to close the store down, the report said.