New York and Michigan have already approved bans on flavored products due to growing safety concerns.

Concerns about the overall safety of vaping, along with worries that vaping products are being marketed to children, has Illinois lawmakers in Springfield ready to act on legislation sponsored by Democratic State Rep. Deb Conroy, a Villa Park Democrat, that would bar all vaping flavors except menthol.

“It’s become a health crisis,” Conroy said. “People are dying.”

Gov. J.B. Pritzker said he supports banning flavored vaping products, which critics contend are marketed at children.

“There is much more research needed to understand the short and long-term health effects of using e-cigarette products,” Pritzker said in the statement, urging the public to stop usage of e-cigarettes.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently announced that over 500 people throughout the country had been diagnosed with vaping-related breathing illnesses, though the cause remains unknown. Eight deaths have been reported, including one in Illinois. Doctors say the illnesses resemble an inhalation injury. No single vaping product or ingredient has yet been linked to the illnesses, but most patients reported vaping THC, the compound that gives marijuana its high.

Even though the health problems are apparently not related to the vaping of non-THC e-cigarettes, Republican state Rep. Grant Wehrli of Naperville wants exceptions on the flavored vaping ban for mint, wintergreen and menthol flavors. He said he doesn’t think they are as “egregious” as other flavors. Another plan sponsored by state Sen. Terry Link, a Vernon Hills Democrat, proposes extending the state’s indoor smoking ban to include e-cigarettes.

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