New Jersey should ban the sale of all flavored vaping products — including menthol — and prohibit the online sale of e-cigarettes, according to a task force Gov. Phil Murphy appointed to address a wave of severe lung diseases that have killed 18 people in the nation, including a woman in the state.

Murphy on Thursday afternoon vowed to “act swiftly” to enact the recommendations and called on legislative leaders to join him.

“The recent spate of lung disease and deaths across the country due to electronic smoking device use is startling,” the Democratic governor said during a news conference at his office in Trenton. "We must work together to protect the health and safety of New Jersey’s youth.”

There already is pending legislation in the state Legislature that would prohibit the sale of flavored vapes in New Jersey, according to the task force report. Murphy said he doesn’t have the authority to ban flavors products by executive order.

The task force, led by acting state Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli, also recommended state lawmakers propose limiting the sale of all electronic smoking devices to “only those retailers that restrict entrance to individuals 21 and older.”

“Our overriding conclusion is that smoking devices pose a threat to public health, particularly the health and well-being of our youth,” Persichilli said during an afternoon press conference with the governor.

If adopted, the recommendations are certain to infuriate the state’s growing vaping industry of some 250 businesses and thousands of employees. The industry says it has played a significant role in decreasing addiction to tobacco products. Limiting e-cigarette sales to licensed shops would undoubtedly be fought by convenience store and gas station owners.

But with 1,080 people in the country suffering from severe lung illnesses and injury, the state should not wait for the federal government to take action, according to the 32-page task force report.

“While federal, state and local authorities continue their investigation to determine what product or chemical is causing these severe illnesses, the key recommendations from a public health perspective are clear — people should stop vaping; people should not buy electronic smoking device products ‘off the street;’ and electronic smoking device products should never be used by youth, young adults and pregnant women,” the report says.

The CDC’s research has pointed to THC-enhanced products causing the most damage among 514 patients for whom it had detailed information on their vaping habits. The CDC found 77% of patients had used a mix of THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, and nicotine products.

In New Jersey, there are 14 confirmed and probable cases of serious lung disease, and 32 reports of severe lung illness under investigation. The age range of all cases is 15 and 51. The woman who died was only identified as being “beyond college age," according to the Department of Health.

Members of Congress and President Donald Trump have also discussed imposing a nationwide ban on flavored e-cigarettes.

State Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester, said last month he would sponsor legislation that would make New Jersey the first state to ban all vape sales, regardless of flavor. On Thursday, he said he “still feels the same way, but I am looking at what we can do immediately.”

That includes limiting sales to vape shops because “restricting access is so important.” Sweeney said he’s been in a convenience store and watched a patron buy-out the supply of Juul products — presumably to resell them to underage buyers.

Sweeney said he liked another task force idea that would ban the sale of electronic cigarettes with nicotine concentrations above 3%. Some stores sell 5% nicotine products, the equivalent of a pack of cigarettes in one e-liquid pod, the report said.

The state also could better scrutinize the industry, by cracking down on shop owners “who blend their own flavors in the back room," Sweeney told NJ Advance Media on Thursday. “People who own the vape shops have to show they are responsible.”

“These are good recommendations, but the ones we are looking a would go a little bit further. That’s not a criticism — we want to work together with the administration,” Sweeney said.

Both tobacco and e-cigarette sales are legally restricted to buyers 21 and older in New Jersey. But the laws everywhere have proven to be ineffective. More than one in five high school students in the nation reporting using electronic smoking devices last year, according to the report.

“We have seen this play before and we know how it ends. Flavors in vaping products are designed to hook a generation of young people on nicotine," said state Assemblyman Herb Conaway, D-Burlington, chairman of Assembly Health Committee, who attended Murphy’s press conference.

State Sens. Shirley Turner, D-Mercer and Joseph Vitale, D-Middlesex, sponsors of the pending bill that would outlaw flavored vapes, said after the event the Legislature was gearing up to champion a package of bills curtailing e-cigarette use.

Vitale, chairman of the Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee, said he intended to include a bill that would ban the sale of menthol-flavored cigarettes. It’s a product that, studies have shown advertisers marketed to black smokers, and it’s time New Jersey take action, Vitale said.

Terri Sabatini of Swedesboro, a 62-year-old emphysema patient whose doctor recommend she vape to quit smoking, expressed disappointment with the proposed plan to ban flavored products.

“They are trying to punish the wrong people,” Sabatini said, who for three years has seen improvement in her lung scans. Blue Freeze, a strawberry-mango-mint-flavor, has keep her off tobacco, she said.

“You are taking people’s livelihoods away. You are taking people’s rights away,” Sabatini said, noting her son manages a vape shop where IDs are always checked.

“I don’t think it’s going to stop the kids. They will find a way,” she added.

Other recommendations by the task force include:

Imposing heavier fines on shop owners and employees who break the law and sell to minors;

Requiring signs at vape shops to include information about health risks;

Banning the sale of hoodies, backpacks and other products that conceal vaping devices.

The state has a dozen inspectors who check to see whether retailers are following the law and checking IDs before selling tobacco and e-cigarettes, Persichilli said. Another 16 others will be added to this team to make these “compliance buys” she said.

Karen Blumenfeld, executive director for the nonprofit Global Advisors on Smokefree Policy, praised the Murphy administration for “working swiftly to come up with solutions,” but said a focus on flavored vapes may be too narrow.

“Banning only flavored vaped products doesn’t align with the findings of (Wednesday’s) New England Journal of Medicine study that found the chemical inhalation is similar to chemical burns from breathing in hazardous materials,” Blumenfeld said. “All vape products appear to (pose) a health issue, not just flavored ones.”

Susan K. Livio may be reached at slivio@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @SusanKLivio.

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