Over the last few years, the popularity of electronic cigarettes has grown in leaps and bounds, according to New York City’s health department. However, plans to regulate the untested product in the same way as tobacco products has set up a serious debate that will take place at a hearing on Wednesday. The City Council’s health committee will propose legislation that would regulate e-cigs the same way as the city does other tobacco products. This would ban their use in bars, restaurants and city parks.
At the hearing, both sides will present their arguments. Health experts will argue that there are too many factors that are presently unknown and it is better to be safe. On the other hand, electronic cigarettes companies will say their product is safer because it does not produce tobacco smoke. Since electronic cigarettes do not contain tobacco, they are exempt from the city’s regulatory laws, up until Wednesday anyways. Although the mayor signed a law last month, which prohibited anyone under 21 years old from purchasing electronic cigarettes, no other laws have been enacted.
The tobacco industries tainted history will also come into play as the deputy director for policy for the national anti smoking non-profit Action on Smoking and Health, Chris Bostic points out. “We cannot take the words of the tobacco industry because they have had a long history of lying about the science,” he says. Electronic cigarette chain Vape New York co-owner, Spike Babaian, feels the city is unnecessarily punishing her industry when she is only trying to help smokers quit.
Over the last two years, Babaian said her stores have served 6,000 New York customers. Stigmatizing electronic cigarette users with habitual smokers will make those trying to quit revert back to their old habits, she hypothesizes. “Putting a cellphone to your head back in 1990 was also fearful, but we didn’t ban them,” Babaian said.
Health Commissioner Thomas Farley fears electronic cigarettes will encourage smoking. “They may introduce a new generation to nicotine addiction, which could lead to their smoking combustion cigarettes. In addition, electronic cigarettes’ similarity in appearance to cigarettes makes it far more difficult to enforce our current smoking laws, which have saved many lives,” Farley said.
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