Apple has opted to remove all vaping-related apps from its App Store in the midst of an e-cigarette epidemic that’s fueled more than 2,000 cases of vaping-related lung injury and at least 42 fatalities.
Axios was the first to report the news on the morning of Nov. 15, at which point Apple’s move was made effective and 181 apps were deleted from the online store. The tech giant announced in June that it would stop accepting new apps that promoted vaping, but this month’s announcement took that decision one step further.
“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,” Apple said in a statement to Axios. “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.”
Apps that helped people control the temperature and lighting of their vape pens, those that mapped out nearby e-cig distributors, those that reported vaping-related news and those that promoted e-cigarette use in any way are no longer available for download on Apple’s platform.
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After graduating from Indiana University-Bloomington with a bachelor’s in journalism, Anicka joined TriMed’s Chicago team in 2017 covering cardiology. Close to her heart is long-form journalism, Pilot G-2 pens, dark chocolate and her dog Harper Lee.