The Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services began enforcing emergency rules at 1 p.m. Dec. 18 to temporarily restrict the sale of flavored e-cigarette products in Montana.

On Dec. 17, a district court judge in Ravalli County dissolved the temporary restraining order for the state’s emergency rules.

The restrictions include the sale of all flavored e-cigarette products, including flavored nicotine, THC and CBD e-cigarette products, in-store and online. The rules do not require retailers to destroy their existing inventory, according to a DPHHS release.

State to enforce emergency rules on sale of e-cigarettes beginning Dec. 18

Retailers who sell e-cigarette products are being notified about the effective date of the emergency rules via letter notification, according to DPHHS, and information has also been made available on the DPHHS website.

The website has information on how the emergency rules will be enforced, including through citizen complaints and inspections of retailers by local health officials.

The agency has also developed an online system to accept citizen complaints. Citizen complaints received through the online system will be sent to the local health department from where the complaint was made.

“We have refused to stand idly by while a powerful industry hooks a new generation of users and puts them right in the path of the national outbreak of lung injury and death,” DPHHS Director Sheila Hogan said in a release. “This has always been about protecting our most vulnerable and we are pleased that the Court chose to stand with Montanans and their health by allowing the emergency rules to go forward.”

The department is continuing to investigate multiple potential new e-cigarette or vaping product use associated lung injury cases, according to the release.

E-cigarette products are currently required to undergo premarket review for safety by the FDA. A federal court has ordered the FDA to begin enforcing these safety rules by May 12, 2020, according to DPHHS.

“In addition to nicotine, e-cigarettes can contain heavy metals, ultrafine particles and cancer-causing agents like acrolein. Some flavorings, particularly those found in e-juice, have been found to be toxic and associated with inflammatory and oxidative stress in lung cells and white blood cells,” according to DPHHS.

Nearly 60 percent of Montana high school students and 30 percent of middle school students have tried vaping. In 2019, almost one in 10 Montana high school students vaped daily, exposing their brains to the long-term effects of nicotine damage. This is a 23 percent increase from 2017, according to DPHHS.