E-CIGARETTES: Fog surrounds regulation of growing industry
From: The Press-Enterprise
BY RICHARD K. De ATLEY
When Mike Pulice of Temecula decided to try electronic cigarettes two years ago, he had to go online to buy the rechargeable, battery-operated, pen-sized vaporizer that turns flavored, scented liquid into a nicotine-laced inhalable steam.
Brick-and-mortar stores were nowhere to be found in 2012, said Pulice, 47, a software consultant and developer.
“When I started, there was nothing in Temecula or even San Diego,” he said in a telephone interview.
But in the last six months of 2013, five stores went into business in Temecula, he said, and a sixth opened near his house in early February. Pulice said he successfully used electronic cigarettes to reduce his tobacco-smoking habit.
The rising popularity of electronic cigarettes, introduced in the United States in 2007, has brought not only a fast proliferation of stores, but also alarm from school districts, health researchers and federal, state and local governments that are trying to size up how the handheld vaporizers fit in the universe of regulation.
