Yonkers eyes prohibiting the sale of flavored vaping products

Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano announced his intentions Thursday to make the city the first municipality in the state to the prohibit selling heavily-regulated, flavored nicotine vaping products.

News 12 Staff

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Sep 5, 2019, 9:37 PM

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Updated 1,933 days ago

Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano announced his intentions Thursday to make the city the first municipality in the state to the prohibit selling heavily-regulated, flavored nicotine vaping products.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, vaping has been linked to hundreds of cases of severe pulmonary disease in more than two dozen states.

Spano called the sale of flavored products that target kids “morally wrong.”

“Right now, my sole concern are the tens of thousands of children who live in the city of Yonkers,” he said.

Mike Bowers, who owns the Vape Cave in the city, says any bill that bans vaping products would shut down his business.

“This is all about prohibition,” Bowers said. “There's a lot of things the City of Yonkers and the Council can do to help with the reduced access.”

Under current laws, anyone aged 21 or older can by vaping products.

City officials say they plan to act quickly to install the ban, if it passes. They say affected business owners will have to take their cases to court.