Are e-cigarettes a tobacco product? L.A. regulation called ‘short-sighted.’
From: The Christian Science Monitor
The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously to prohibit e-cigarettes wherever regular tobacco products are banned. Supporters of the e-cigarette industry say such laws are premature.
Los Angeles. Do e-cigarettes endanger the health of their users and secondhand inhalers and therefore require strict regulation, or are they a safer alternative to conventional lit cigarettes whose growing popularity should be welcomed?
On Tuesday Los Angeles took the plunge into this national debate, with a unanimous City Council vote to prohibit e-cigarettes wherever regular tobacco products are banned.
If Mayor Eric Garcetti signs the measure, as expected, Los Angeles will have joined the ranks of Chicago, Boston, New York, and another 100-plus municipalities nationwide that have decided to regulate e-cigarette use, even before the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which regulates tobacco products, has issued e-cigarette regulations of its own.
Supporters of the e-cigarette industry are criticizing the cities’ new laws as hasty, saying there is a lack of conclusive evidence about the long-term health effects of e-cigarette use.
“Lacking concrete scientific evidence, L.A.’s proposal is premature and short-sighted, and would trigger a serious public health disservice by keeping a less harmful product away from existing adult smokers,” says Charles Connor, a consultant to ECIG, an industry trade group, as well as former president of the American Lung Association.
