Big U.S. Cities Foment Baseless, Superstitious Fear Of Electronic Cigarettes
From: Forbes
By Gilbert Ross
Whatever became of urban sophistication, especially on matters scientific and technological? We lifelong city folk cultivated a nasty habit of looking down on the denizens of the “flyover” regions as hayseeds, believing the sun revolved around the earth.
Not any longer, thanks to the baseless, superstitious fear running amok in the big-city linchpins of New York, Los Angeles, and now Chicago. The source of this surprising revival of the need to burn witches? Electronic cigarettes.
Given the potential public health miracle represented by electronic cigarettes (e-cigs), I was immensely pleased when last month the Chicago City Council flouted the demands of Mayor Rahm Emanuel by refusing to kowtow to his strong-arm tactics to have Chicago join in the attack against e-cigs (while their counterparts in New York and L.A. caved). But last week, the Council reversed course and went along with the Mayor’s bullying, consigning desperate ex-smokers into the cold Chicago night, to be surrounded by smokers, from whose toxic habit they had thought themselves free.
Meanwhile, a Midwestern state — Wisconsin by name — took pains to exclude e-cigarettes from its tightened tobacco control laws. Most other localities have taken similar, science-based measures, avoiding the counterproductive regulatory intrusions of our biggest cities.
