Banning sale of flavored vaping products gains new momentum in CT

The campaign to ban the sale of flavored vaping products in Connecticut is gaining momentum with a group of Democratic lawmakers expected to issue their support, joined by health advocates, during an online news conference Wednesday.

State Sens. Julie Kushner, Saud Anwar, Jorge Cabrera and James Maroney, and state Reps. Corey Paris and Jill Barry — all Democrats — will push for the ban at Wednesday’s press conference and highlight how Connecticut is one of the few states in the Northeast to still allow the sale of flavored vaping products. A rise in teen vaping has led many states to prohibit the products from being sold within their borders.

The lawmakers will be joined by Kevin O’Flaherty, director of advocacy for Connecticut Campaign Tobacco-Free Kids, Dr. Melanie S. Collins, director of the Cardiopulmonary Testing Laboratory at Connecticut Children's Medical Center, and Fran Rabinowitz, executive director of the Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents.

The push follows comments last week from Gov. Ned Lamont who said he would support the ban, which he has proposed in his previous budgets. Antitobacco advocates wanted the governor to include the proposal in his midterm budget plan, which will come out Feb. 9, but Lamont said he’ll likely leave it up to lawmakers to introduce a bill that he would then support.

“This time, I’d like to work with the legislature to see if they’ll step up. I’ll sign it,” the governor said last week.

Lamont was pressed about his support at news conferences last year announcing the relocation of tobacco giant Phillip Morris’ headquarters to Connecticut. The governor said at the time the move would not get in the way of his public health objectives.

Efforts to impose a ban on all flavored tobacco products, including menthol cigarettes, failed to gain traction in the legislature last year after nonpartisan budget analysts said it would cost the state nearly $200 million in tax revenue over a two-year period.

Instead, lawmakers pushed forward with a flavored vape ban, but that proposal ultimately got watered down to the point where Tobacco Free Kids, the main advocate, asked Democrats to strip it from the massive budget “implementer” bill that lawmakers adopt at the end of each spring session.