NEW YORK: Massachusetts on Tuesday officially became the first US state to ban — if temporarily — the sale of all electronic cigarettes, going further than states that only prohibited flavored products. The ban is effective immediately and will run until January 25, said Governor Charlie Baker, who declared a public health emergency in the northeastern state. San Francisco in California had already adopted a similar citywide ban in July, but until now no other state had imposed a statewide ban. “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,” Baker said. In the past weeks a wave of severe vaping-linked pulmonary diseases that has sickened hundreds and caused seven deaths have been reported in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
