The meeting marked the first attempt to create a regionalized approach to regulating the vaping and e-cigarette industries. | Getty Images Northeast governors explore regional standards for vaping, e-cigarette products

Top officials from New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania are considering regional standards for vaping and e-cigarette products, including implementing product safety regulations for nicotine, CBD and other cannabinoid vaping products.

The recommendations were presented Thursday morning by Judith Persichilli, New Jersey’s acting health commissioner, during a closed-door information session in New York City that was chaired by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Others participating were New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont and Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, as well as health officials from a half-dozen other Democrat-led states.


The meeting marked the first attempt to create a regionalized approach to regulating the vaping and e-cigarette industries, which are at the center of a mysterious public health crisis that’s been linked to lung injuries in nearly 1,300 people across the U.S. as of Oct. 8. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has also reported 26 deaths in 21 states.

The recommendations, which Persichilli presented as “guiding principles,” include banning the sale of flavored vape products — something New York has already attempted through an executive emergency order. She also suggested standardizing labels to assure vape users of manufacturers and increasing the scale of enforcement actions against retailers who sell vaping products to people under 21.

“We have a public health crisis here, and we must work together to confront it,” Persichilli said.

Persichilli recently led a task force that suggested similar policy changes in New Jersey, where the state Legislature is expected to begin work in November and December on bills to advance some of those recommendations — which include eliminating the sale of flavored pods and outlawing online sales.

Lamont called the Northeast’s existing approaches on cannabis and vaping regulations a “patchwork quilt of regulation [that] makes no sense at all.” Cuomo described the lack of federal intervention as “liberation in the acknowledgement that we are on our own,” which has prompted the governors to investigate regional action.

“In theory, the federal government is supposed to get involved in issues that go beyond one state’s borders. That is not happening on this issue,” Cuomo said before citing New York and New Jersey’s joint control over the Port Authority as an example of how state governments can collaborate on a more “intelligent form of government.”

“This extrapolates on that intelligence,” he said. “This is a regional issue, and to the extent we can collaborate and do [it] as a collective, that is great.”

It’s unclear how the states would collectively legislate and enforce specific bans on individual substances. Each state has its own independent mechanism for regulating its respective cannabis industry, for instance, and the creation of regionalized standards for e-cigarettes and vapes would likely require extensive legislative or executive action.

“The more coordinated and harmonious we can be, the better off we’ll all individually be,” said Murphy, the incoming chairman of the Democratic Governors Association, after hearing Persichilli’s recommendations. “Your own legislative reality is your own legislative reality, your executive order authority is your own, but I’m optimistic we can do [marijuana and vaping regulations] in a very coordinated way.”

Murphy’s unsuccessful efforts to pass legislation to legalize recreational cannabis is perhaps emblematic of the likely challenges faced by state leaders in the months ahead. While Democrats control strong majorities in both houses of the New Jersey Legislature, disagreements on issues like criminal justice reform, enforcement and industry regulation dragged down the momentum of legislation that appeared almost certain to pass in 2018.

New Jersey Senate President Steve Sweeney — who also sat on the Cuomo-led panel with New York Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins — told POLITICO he was optimistic regionwide standards could be implemented.

Sweeney said he’d like to include some of his own recommendations to limit the supply of vaping products to certain retailers.

“It’s in every convenience store. It’s everywhere,” Sweeney said. “You know, we have liquor stores for a reason. Licensing and enforcement are going to be critical.

Shannon Young contributed to this report.