The Public Health Council has pushed back the start time for a Wednesday morning meeting at which council members are set to vote on new vaping regulations.
The meeting, at the Department of Public Health's 250 Washington St. office in downtown Boston, is now scheduled for 10 a.m. It was originally scheduled for 9 a.m., and a DPH spokeswoman said the change was due to expected weather. The Boston office of the National Weather Service is projecting "snow-covered roads" in parts of New England for the Wednesday morning commute.
The council is expected to take two votes during the meeting. One will repeal the current emergency ban on the sale of all nicotine vaping products, otherwise set to last through Dec. 24. The other, in keeping with a law Gov. Baker signed on Nov. 27 to ban all flavored tobacco and e-cigarette products and tax e-cigarettes, would establish new regulations around the retail sale of nicotine vaping products.
Baker's office has said the regulations will require shops that sell vaping products to post signs warning of the dangers of severe lung disease and other health risks; specify the public health commissioner's authority to prohibit the sale of a designated vaping product that is determined to cause vaping-related lung illness or otherwise pose a substantial health risk; specify inspection procedures to determine that retailers are in compliance with the law; establish requirements for how retailers and manufacturers must comply with the new requirement that vaping products with more than 35 mg/ml of nicotine can only be sold in 21+ establishments; and require vaping products to be sold from behind the counter in convenience stores and other all-ages retailers. - Katie Lannan/SHNS | 12/10/19 3:48 PM
