© Go Nakamura/New York Daily News
"Vaping is dangerous, period," Cuomo said Sunday.
"This is a burgeoning health crisis," he added, vowing to "take action now."
Cuomo called out flavors like bubble gum and cotton candy that are aimed at young smokers.
"These are obviously targeted to young people and are highly effective," Cuomo said, pointing to federal stats from 2018 showing vaping among high schoolers had increased 160% over the past four years.
Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker said 64 cases of lung disease in the state have been linked to vaping to date.
He will hold an emergency meeting with a state council on health issues early this week, after which the state will issue the ban, Cuomo said.
It will go into effect as soon as Oct. 4, according to Beth Garvey, special counsel and senior adviser to the governor. The governor will renew the ban every 90 days.
She said after the ban is announced, the Health Department will spend about two weeks warning retailers before enforcement begins.
Cuomo said tobacco and menthol flavors were exempted because vaping can be a helpful way for adults to quit smoking cigarettes.
The announcement follows a similar ban in Michigan, and news last week from President Trump that his administration is looking into a nationwide crackdown on flavored e-cigs.
But Cuomo said the feds are unreliable.
"Who knows where the federal government is?" he said. "I'm not going to wait for the federal government."
Along with the ban, Cuomo said the state police and Health Department will crack down on stores that sell vaping products to underage buyers. The state's legal age to buy tobacco and vaping products goes up, from 18 to 21, this fall.
"That crackdown is going to be aggressive and it's going to start now," the governor said.
He also plans to introduce legislation so all companies are banned from advertising products to children that contain nicotine.
Juul, the biggest e-cig company in the U.S., issued a statement saying, "We will review today's announcement as we strongly agree with the need for aggressive category-wide action on flavored products.
"We already stopped selling our non-tobacco/non-menthol based JUUL pods to traditional retail stores, are fighting against counterfeit and compatible products made with unknown ingredients under unknown manufacturing standards, and will fully comply with local laws and the final FDA policy," spokesman Austin Finan said.
Councilman Mark Levine (D-Manhattan) and the NAACP held a rally outside the city Department of Education on Sunday as Levine pushes the City Council to pass anti-vaping legislation. He plans to amend his bill so it covers menthol and every flavor except tobacco and flavorless.
"I commend the governor for taking action on this," said Levine. "We want legislation to make this permanent."
The chairwoman of the NAACP's state health conference objected to Cuomo's decision to allow menthol-flavored e-cigs.
"It doesn't solve the problem," said Lorraine Braithwaite-Harte. "The tobacco companies are pouring a lot of money into the black community to addict young people onto cigarettes by using flavored cigarettes, especially menthol."
She applauded legislation from Councilman Fernando Cabrera (D-Bronx) to ban menthol e-cigs.
Discussing his vaping ban on CNN later Sunday, Cuomo said, "Our Department of Health is continuing to review menthol, but we may very well also ban menthol because young people are also attracted to menthol."
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