BLANDFORD — Gov. Charlie Baker defended Thursday the state’s four-month ban on sales of vaping products in the face of a federal lawsuit and backlash from vape users and retailers who fear being put out of business.
“We didn’t enter this one easily,” Baker, a Republican, told reporters following an unrelated event on a scenic country road in Blandford. “We appreciated the destruction it was going to create, and people certainly have access to the courts.”
Baker said physicians and biologists informed the administration that the danger is not vaping tobacco versus marijuana products. The danger is in heating a liquid and inhaling the vapor into the lungs, where it has a chance to turn back into a liquid.
"And maybe not getting it all back out again," Baker said. "You grow up knowing that water in your lungs is a really bad thing."
He hopes that the four-month moratorium, announced Sept. 24, gives the state a chance to come up with a regulatory framework to stop the deaths and injuries related to vaping.
"The CDC has a hundred people on it," he said.
As of Thursday, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were 26 vaping-related deaths across 21 states, including three fatalities each in Alabama and California. One of those deaths is in Massachusetts, a woman in her 60s from Hampshire County, according to state health officials.
The CDC said the number of confirmed and probable lung illnesses tied to vaping has climbed to 1,299.