Chicago’s Mayor Jumps On Anti-Vaping Bandwagon
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is calling for a ban on all flavored e-cigarettes, a movement that's been gaining a lot of traction lately.
Mayors, governors, senators, representatives and more have been enacting (or at least heavily urging in some cases) bans on flavored vaping liquids and e-cigarette devices for months now, and now Chicago's mayor has joined in, backed up by Senator Dick Durbin, Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker and others.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is calling for a ban on all flavored e-cigarettes, and she has some prominent Illinois politicians in her corner.
“I am committing today to lead an effort to expand the current ban on sales of flavored e-cigarettes citywide,” Lightfoot said.
Senator Dick Durbin, who has been calling on the FDA to step up its regulations of the products, supports Lightfoot’s push.
“We have a challenge,” he said. “We have to convince students that its’ a bad idea to vape, and we have to convince their parents it’s not a harmless cloud of smoke around their heads.”
The Illinois Department of Public Health recently reported 52 confirmed cases for severe respiratory illnesses potentially linked to vaping.
While Mayor Lightfoot is currently focused on only the flavored varieties of e-cigarettes and liquids, she does leave the door open to banning all e-cigarette products, calling them a "gateway to addiction."