In early October, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee announced his intent to ban all flavored vaping products statewide. And while even more stringent vaping bans have picked up steam across the U.S., one expert claims that full-on prohibition could actually do more harm than good.

Susan Collins.
Collins

“The problem with bans and prohibitions in this country’s history is that it’s such an absolute rule that there are then unregulatable products,” said Susan Collins, psychology professor at Washington State University and co-director of a medical research center at the University of Washington.

While not speaking on behalf of either university, she underscored the importance of thinking twice about a ban on vaping products, in the wake of a rash of illnesses.

“We need to take a step back and in a calm, collected, methodical way, parse through the science, and understand what is involved in vaping behavior, and what parts of it can be made more safe,” she said.

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