Gov. Cuomo on Monday announced measures to tackle health issues linked to vaping. Some of them include having the state’s Department of Health issue emergency regulations to mandate warning signs in all vape and smoke shops in New York and advancing new legislation to ban flavored e-cigarettes.
Michael Kelleher, the owner of Sir Vape A Lot in Hamburg, said his products aren’t the ones people should be worried about.
“It’s really these products that are made underground or made in somebody’s basement, all my stuff is not made in my back room, it is made in a factory environment, clean environment, Food Drug and Administration clean environment, the problem is the people that are filling canisters with the basement bargain THC oil that’s killing people,” Kelleher said.
Medical officials say vitamin E acetate in some vaping products could be what’s triggering respiratory illnesses.
“They’re putting cannabis into a cylinder to use as a vaping product, let’s say they use half of it for that and they fill up the other half with a vitamin E acetate, so now up to 50 percent of that canister that ultimately vaporizes is vitamin E, what we have found that all of these products that have the vitamin E was purchased on the black market,” said Howard Zucker, the commissioner of the State Department of Health.
Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown recently announced new stores that sell e-cigarettes will not be allowed to open in Buffalo for the next six months. Dr. Frank Michalski, of North Town Chiropractic and Injury Rehab, says doing something like this may not be the answer.
“I tell people this is something that we can’t just take away and say, ‘You have to stop.’ There needs to be a plan of action on how to stop and accountability,” he said.
As officials continue their investigation, Kelleher wants them to know he’s not trying to hurt anyone.
“I’m in business to keep people alive and to get people off cigarettes,” he said.