Smoke shops across the state are pulling flavored e-cigarettes off their store shelves after Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced an emergency ban of vaping products, considered to be heavily targeted towards youth.

A Norwood smoke shop on the corner of Bainbridge Avenue and East 207th Street is breathing easy on this. Mo, who works there, says that e-cigarettes don’t make up a large percentage of the store’s revenue. Among those is Juul, a vaping product he says sells.

“Juul is one section that sells. I sell other stuff. It’s a big loss but it’s not really gonna close me,” notes Mo.

Juul is the leading e-cigarette manufacturer and customers only need to buy the vaping pen and refill it with a variety of cartridges. One Juul pod can contain as much nicotine as an entire pack of cigarettes, according to the CDC.

The ban, voted in favor by the state Public Health and Health Planning Council, went into effect on Sept. 15 and will be reviewed every 90 days before renewal.

In 2018, 27 percent of high schoolers were active vapers, according to the state Department of Health. The state’s legal age to buy tobacco is 21 years old. Mo says he’s had to deny the product to customers under the age limit. Meantime, the city Health Department reports 1 in 15 middle school students and 1 in 6 high school students are actively vaping.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that 530 confirmed or probable causes of lung disease associated with e-cigarettes had been identified in 38 states and the U.S. Virgin Islands, with nine confirmed deaths. Some of the deaths are linked to users putting marijuana vaping oils into vaping products. Marijuana contains tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active psychoactive ingredient in marijuana.

Dr. Juan Tapia Mendoza, a pediatrician who works with Mount Sinai Hospital and Montefiore Health System, among others in the city, says that though there is still more research to be done, vaping products are harmful largely because they contain nicotine, vitamin E acetate and other additives. “The speculation is that the oil of the vitamin E acetate creates a severe chemical reaction deep inside the lungs which prevents oxygen exchange between the lungs and circulation,” says Dr. Mendoza, who has 20 years’ experience.

Unlike other products containing nicotine, e-cigarettes and other vaping products are not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Dr. Mendoza, who also works with SOMOS, a health network that caters mostly to the immigrant community, notes that many of his vaping patients consider the practice to be safe and non-addictive. Roughly 25 percent of his patients have the chronic disease of pulmonary function, which can become so severe that replacing a damaged lung with an artificial lung is inevitable.

Stores that sell flavored e-cigarettes have until the end of this month to remove the banned product from shelves.

In a statement offered to the press, Juul emphasized its products do not “include THC, any compound derived from cannabis-related products, or vitamin E compounds like those found in cannabis-related products. We appreciate the work of the CDC, FDA, and other public health authorities, and are confident that they will get to the bottom of this issue.”