Walmart will stop selling electronic cigarettes in the US

Walmart said Friday that it will stop selling electronic cigarettes in its US stores, after they were signaled to encourage young people to vape, with a high risk of nicotine addiction.

This decision will come into effect once the current reservations are over, the world's number one distributor said in an email.

"In view of the recent complexity and uncertainty surrounding the regulation of electronic cigarettes at the federal, state and local levels, we will stop selling electronic products containing nicotine at Walmart and Sam's Club sites," said a spokesman. Sam's Club is a wholesale sales chain operated by Walmart.

Walmart's decision came two days after the state of New York followed Michigan's measure to ban the marketing of flavored electronic cigarettes.

The Trump administration also announced on September 11 that a similar measure will be implemented in the coming months at the federal level.

Electronic cigarettes are the cause of a recent epidemic of lung diseases in the United States, according to federal health authorities.

The total number of patients amounts to 530 confirmed and probable, and seven dead, according to the latest figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.