President Donald Trump says his administration will move to ban flavored e-cigarettes as the U.S. faces a public health crisis related to vaping.

“We have a problem in our country. It’s a new problem; it’s a problem nobody really thought about too much a few years ago. It, it’s called vaping, especially vaping as it pertains to innocent children,” said Donald Trump U.S. President.

CGTN’s Jim Spellman reports.

E-cigarettes are battery-operated devices heat liquid containing nicotine and sometimes flavors and other ingredients into a vapor that is inhaled. It is sometimes marketed as a so-called “safer” alternative to cigarettes.

“Youth are drawn to flavored e-cigarettes including mint and menthol. Currently, about eight million adults use e-cigarettes but five million children are using e-cigarettes. This is exceptionally harmful to our children. An entire generation of children risk becoming addicted to nicotine because of the attractiveness appealability and availability of these vaping products,” said Alex Azar, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services.

In recent months, more than 450 people in the U.S. have become sick and at least six people have died from a mysterious condition linked to vaping, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. Some of those cases have been tied to the use of THC – the active ingredient in marijuana.

“It needs to be thought of as an injury to the lungs, caused by something in the vaping. It is not an infection, it does not respond to antibiotics, and it is very severe. The patients who have this are admitted to the hospital. Many of them are winding up in the intensive care unit and many of them are winding up on the ventilator with assisted ventilation until they can get through it,” David Persse, Houston Public Health Authority said.

The ban on the sale of flavored vaping products will take a few months to go into effect. The American Vaping Association, which represents the e-cigarette industry, says it will fight the ban.