FDA intends to clear the air on e-cigarettes
From: The Kansas City Star
By DIANE STAFFORD
The man at the nearby restaurant table is puffing away. Can he do that?
Maybe. It depends what he’s smoking.
What about the woman at the desk next to yours. Can she light up throughout the workday?
Possibly.
If the smoke is actually vapor from an electronic cigarette — depending on where you are — they may be perfectly within their rights.
In Kansas City, for example, a very specific no-smoking ordinance covers only tobacco products. “E-cigs” — although they contain nicotine — are tobacco-free and aren’t regulated as tobacco products.
At least not yet.
Any day now, the federal Food and Drug Administration is expected to issue a proposed rule about electronic cigarettes — a ruling that could send ripples into the workplace and other public places.
Except in a few locations, notably New York City, use of e-cigarettes isn’t specifically prohibited under the same laws or ordinances that ban tobacco smoking. Employers, though, may bar use on their properties if they choose. The relative lack of regulation and case-by-case handling to date could change depending on whether the FDA regulates e-cigs as a tobacco product.
For now, Kansas City’s no-smoking ordinance says: “The possession of lighted smoking materials in any form, including but not limited to, the possession of lighted cigarettes, cigars, pipes or other tobacco products, shall be prohibited in all enclosed places of employment within the City.”
“That doesn’t include e-cigarettes, which are still an unregulated product,” said Jeff Hershberger, media specialist with the Kansas City Health Department. “But once the FDA comes to a decision, there probably will be a roll-down effect.”
Until then, most e-cig users are legally free to puff on the tobacco-free cigarettes, which heat up a chemical solution and emit a smoke-like vapor upon exhaling. The vapor doesn’t smell like tobacco smoke and, unlike tobacco products, there’s no evidence that someone sitting next to an e-cig user has second-hand health effects.
For now, whether you can use e-cigs on the job or in public venues usually is a case-by-case decision by employers and municipalities.
The FDA and the Office of Management and Budget, which now has the proposed regulation under review, do not reveal intended publication dates for proposed rules. But it could be imminent.
