“Will be meeting with representatives of the Vaping industry, together with medical professionals and individual state representatives, to come up with an acceptable solution to the Vaping and E-cigarette dilemma,” Mr. Trump wrote in a tweet Monday morning. “Children’s health & safety, together with jobs, will be a focus!”
He didn’t say when the meeting would happen, but the policy has been delayed under heavy lobbying. On Friday, Mr. Trump said he supported raising the minimum purchase age for e-cigarettes nationwide to 21 from 18.
The Trump administration in September said it planned to take off the market any e-cigarettes that weren’t formulated to taste like tobacco. Some interest groups have fought the ban, arguing it was better to focus on preventing just minors from gaining access to the products.
On Thursday, the CDC reported there have been 2,051 confirmed and probable U.S. lung injury cases and 39 deaths associated with use of e-cigarettes, or vaping products. Nearly 85 percent of lung injury patients in the nationwide outbreak have reported using products containing THC, the component of marijuana that gets people high.
In the CDC analysis, THC was detected in 23 of 28 patient samples of lung cells, including from three patients who said they did not use THC products. Nicotine was detected in 16 of 26 patient samples.
U.S. public health officials have recommended that people avoid using e-cigarettes that contain THC or any products that come from illicit sources.