NEW YORK – New York City's new ban on electronic cigarettes
in public places is part of a growing national trend toward regulating the
devices.
Posted on: 12/20/2013
Posted on: 12/20/2013
Thursday, council members in the nation's largest city voted
to extend a ban on smoking traditional cigarettes in public places,
restaurants, bars and in private office buildings to include e-cigarettes. New
Jersey, Utah and North Dakota already ban the use of e-cigarettes where smoking
is prohibited, while Los Angeles and Chicago also are considering such bans,
officials said.
Supporters of the bills say e-cigarettes may cause people to
start toxic addictions and may pose unknown health risks to the public.
Opponents argue that they help people stop smoking and do not contain the same
chemicals that make regular cigarettes dangerous.
"These are being touted as safer than cigarettes, but
we don't really know that," said Councilman James Gennaro, who
co-sponsored New York City's bill. "Just seeing people smoking things that
look identical to cigarettes in subway cars, colleges and public libraries will
tend to re-normalize the act of smoking and send the wrong message to
kids."
He and others fears youngsters may take up e-cigarettes,
become addicted to nicotine, and may even graduate to smoking traditional
cigarettes without knowing the full health effects of their actions. Others
agreed, with New York's ban passing by a 43 to 8 vote.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who backed the bill, is expected to
sign it into law before leaving office.
More than a dozen local governments including Concord City
and Petaluma in California, and Lee, Lenox, Stockbridge, North Attleborough,
Somerset and South Hadley in Massachusetts also have similar laws, officials
said.
Several e-cigarette manufacturers have come out against
these regulations saying the items should be reserved for adults but not banned
in public places.
"The states are grouping e-cigarettes with traditional
cigarettes without understanding differences between the two and the positive
benefits e-cigarettes can provide," said Rick Zhu, who in 2010 founded
California-based Apollo Electronic Cigarettes.
He argues that e-cigarettes are less expensive, produce
little smell through the vapors emitted and allow people to control their habit
by letting them regulate how much nicotine they take in with the items.
Read more on this @New York City E-cig Ban