NYC Council considers electronic cigarette ban [View all]

[onehandle]

Last edited Thu Dec 5, 2013, 01:35 PM - Edit history (2)

Source: AP

Public health officials have asked the City Council to enact legislation that would add e-cigs to the 12-year-old law that drove smokers out of the city's taverns, nightclubs and office buildings, and forced them to satisfy their nicotine habits on the frigid (or broiling) sidewalks.

"Waiting to act could jeopardize the progress we've made in the last 12 years," said the city's health commissioner, Dr. Thomas Farley. He also said that electronic cigarettes make enforcement of the rules against tobacco smoking more difficult, since the two products look so much alike.

Farley added that too little was known about electronic cigarettes to say whether they are safe to use, or whether they actually help people quit smoking for good.

Health advocates have raised concerns that the inhalers, which have soared in popularity, can get people hooked on nicotine just like cigarettes, and might be taken up by people who have never smoked before, rather than only people trying to quit.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/nyc-council-considers-electronic-cigarette-ban-214929167--finance.html

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Carlsbad OKs e-cigarette ban. City says devices are toxic, lure youngsters to smoke.

CARLSBAD — The Carlsbad City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to ban electronic cigarettes in all places where ordinary smoking is prohibited, becoming the second local city to legislate against the increasingly popular devices.

Proponents of so-called “e-cigarettes” say they’re a cleaner and healthier alternative to tobacco cigarettes because users get nicotine without fire, ash, smoke or carbon monoxide. They also tout them as an effective tool to help smokers quit.

But Carlsbad city officials based their ban partly on a recent federal analysis that found vapors from e-cigarettes contain carcinogens, including nitrosamines and toxic chemicals such as diethylene glycol. The battery-powered devices look like cigarettes and heat up liquid nicotine solutions creating a vapor that users can inhale.

City officials said e-cigarettes can serve as a gateway to smoking conventional cigarettes for children, who are attracted to them because they come in a variety of colors and flavors such as cotton candy and root beer. “It’s a gateway device,” City Councilman Mark Packard said. “They’re clearly marketed to youth and children.”

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/dec/03/carlsbad-e-cigarettes-ban-nicotine-youth
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