NYC Council considers electronic cigarette ban

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

NYC Council considers electronic cigarette ban

December 4, 2013

NEW YORK (AP) — New Yorkers who say electronic cigarettes helped them quit smoking asked city lawmakers at a hearing on Wednesday not to ban the nicotine inhalers from restaurants, workplaces and other indoor spaces, saying there isn't enough evidence they pose a health risk to justify their exclusion.

"They have been instrumental, for me, to remain smoke free," said Andrew Martin, an 18-year-old who said he took up smoking cigarettes at age 16. He also groused that he didn't believe public health experts who warned that the inhalers, which often look just like real cigarettes, might be dangerous. "These people would try to get you to prohibit penicillin ... if there was grant money in it."

Public health officials have asked the City Council to enact legislation that would add e-cigs to the 12-year-old law that drove smokers out of the city's taverns, nightclubs and office buildings, and forced them to satisfy their nicotine habits on the frigid (or broiling) sidewalks.

Today, the sight of someone puffing away indoors is somewhat shocking in New York, but it is becoming more common again as electronic cigarettes become more popular. Proponents of a ban told the council's health committee that e-cigs are threatening to undermine one of the key benefits of the original smoking ban, which was to make it socially unacceptable to smoke indoors.

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Read more: http://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2013/12/04/nyc-council-considers-electronic-cigarette-ban

[Comrade Grumpy]

1. There appears to be no evidence-based reason to ban them.

"Proponents of a ban told the council's health committee that e-cigs are threatening to undermine one of the key benefits of the original smoking ban, which was to make it socially unacceptable to smoke indoors."

That's just lame.

[Hosnon]

4. Agreed. And whyyy do we want it to be socially unacceptable to smoke indoors?

The smoke, not the device. Are we going to ban bubble-gum cigarettes too?

[ohheckyeah]

6. And it's untrue.

The goal is to make smoking anywhere unacceptable.

[Hosnon]

2. This is absurd. Just because they look like cigarettes does not mean they are.

Smoking is banned because of the smoke, not because of the activity of putting a stick to your mouth.

[LadyHawkAZ]

3. We have an indoor ban in Utah

There doesn't seem to be any logical reasoning behind it other than "We don't want to see anything that looks like smoking".

Doesn't affect me much, I only use it indoors at home, but it does seem silly.

[Xipe Totec]

5. "there isn't enough evidence they pose a health risk" Isn't this exactly the argument

Tobacco companies used to stall regulation on cigarette advertising for decades?

This is a tried and true technique.

[kiva]

7. And someone admits the truth:

"Proponents of a ban told the council's health committee that e-cigs are threatening to undermine one of the key benefits of the original smoking ban, which was to make it socially unacceptable to smoke indoors."

It's not about whether or not e-cigarettes are a health hazard, but about controlling the social message.