Another blow to all the vapers out there.
Concerns over the health and safety implications of vapes and e-cigarettes has prompted Apple to remove all apps pertaining to the activity from the App Store.
According to America’s Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there have been 42 deaths in America so far that appear to stem from an illness related to vaping. However, little is known about the illness. New York State has issued a ban on most vaping products.
Now, tech giants Apple appear to be getting behind the movement. In a statement to Mashable, Apple said:
“Recently, experts ranging from the CDC to the American Heart Association have attributed a variety of lung injuries and fatalities to e-cigarette and vaping products, going so far as to call the spread of these devices a public health crisis and a youth epidemic.
“We agree, and we’ve updated our App Store Review Guidelines to reflect that apps encouraging or facilitating the use of these products are not permitted.”
However, the spokesperson for Apple also confirmed that apps cannot be wiped from a user’s iPhone, so if you’ve already got a vaping app of some kind on your phone, you’ll still be able to use it.
This article would have made no sense to somebody reading it in 1999.
As of now, the HSE’s official line on vaping is:
“E-cigarettes are still fairly new, so we don’t yet know how safe they are or if they help people stop smoking. Because of this, we don’t recommend e-cigarettes to help you quit smoking.”
