Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department Officials Consider Banning E-Cigarettes In Public

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On one side there's a woman who swears that she was a smoker for 20 years and was able to quit smoking only thanks to the electronic cigarettes.

On other side there are officials who are afraid of  "unknown risks".

If you fire up a battery-powered cigarette in public, are you harming yourself and others?

Or are you exercising your right to use an alternative to incendiary tobacco that might help you kick a nasty and dangerous habit?

Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department officials are considering a ban on electronic cigarettes in public places, and those questions are certain to be heatedly discussed in the next few weeks.

Proposed regulations unveiled Wednesday would prohibit e-smoking – or “vaping,” as users call it – anywhere the use of real cigarettes and cigars already is prohibited by state law.

That would include restaurants, bars and other public places.

The proposals also would ban the sale of e-cigarettes to minors.

Those rules already apply in King County, where a ban in public places took effect Jan. 15.

 

Tacoma-Pierce County Director of Health Dr. Anthony Chen says the proposed regulations are part of the agency’s mission “to safeguard and enhance the health of residents.”

He has concerns about the nicotine and other chemicals the e-cigarettes deliver and says “they’re targeted at young people who don’t want to smoke cigarettes but want to be able to blow smoke rings.”

Health officials also say they’re concerned about the possibility of second-hand vapor effects.

“Nicotine is a nerve poison,” Chen said.

E-cigarette retailer Kim Thompson argues vaping is a harmless way to step down from smoking and that the chemicals contained in the e-juice are found in common products and foods.

“I smoked for 20-plus years, and I tried everything but Chantix,” she said. When she found an e-cigarette that helped her quit, she took the money she saved from buying tobacco products and used it to help open The Vaporium in Lakewood.

“I think the all-out banning of this product in places where adults frequent is invasive, unjust and very Big Brother,” the 41-year-old Thompson said.

Read more: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2011/05/05/1653162/apply-cigarette-ban-to-vaping.html

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I think the officials should first ban regular cigarettes and THEN debate on how harmful the e-cigarettes are.

Does 1000 times less carcinogens tell them something? Obviously not…

What's your view on this debate?

On who's side are you?

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