Tulare County takes steps to snuff out e-cigarettes

Tulare County now is regulating e-cigarettes more strictly than existing state law, which local supporters say is needed to protect the public from secondhand vapor and to stop youths from taking up a bad habit.

An ordinance approved last month by the Board of Supervisors bans the use of electronic smoking devices in places where smoking tobacco is already prohibited, such as restaurants.

State law now bans the sale of electronic smoking devices to minors, and the new county ordinance does the same. But it goes further by banning the sale of paraphernalia to minors, local supporters said.

It also prohibits self-service displays and free samples.

Tulare County is following in the footsteps of at least 13 other California counties, including Kern, and several cities in regulating e-cigarettes in the absence of comprehensive state or federal regulation.

“It’s important that we make the statement that we don’t support any selling of these materials to minors,” Supervisor Phil Cox said.

The ordinance covers areas of county jurisdiction and county buildings, but does not cover cities within the county.

At the urging of a countywide health advisory committee, the county health department sought the ordinance to protect the public from e-cigarette emissions and to make it harder for minors to get e-cigarettes, said Dr. Karen Haught, Tulare County public health officer.

“There are many toxic elements in e-cigarettes. It’s not just water vapor,” she said. Those include chemicals associated with risks of cancer and birth defects, she said.

But Gregory Conley, president of the industry-funded American Vaping Association in New Jersey, said that “there’s no evidence secondhand vapor poses any threat to bystanders.”

Still, the group supports banning sale of e-cigarettes to minors, he said.

Electronic cigarettes are battery-operated devices that convert a liquid solution into an aerosol, or vapor, which is then inhaled.

The vapor is why e-cigarette use is called “vaping.”

The solutions, which are not regulated by the federal government, often contain nicotine. Some electronic smoking device advocates maintain they aid smokers who are trying to quit.

But opponents note that vaping is growing in popularity and worry that it could “renormalize” traditional cigarette smoking.

Additionally, e-cigarettes are seen as a gateway to tobacco smoking for young people.

In April, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that while the use of traditional cigarettes by minors is dropping, use of e-cigarettes is growing substantially.

Use of e-cigarettes went from 1.5 percent of high school students in 2011 to 13.4 percent in 2014, and tripled from 2013 to 2014, a study said.

Only four states – New Jersey, North Dakota, Utah and Hawaii – have comprehensive regulations governing e-cigarettes, said Mark Meany, an attorney at the Tobacco Control Legal Consortium, which favors regulation of e-cigarettes.

“We don’t know what the public health effects will be long term,” Meany said.

In Sacramento, Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, has proposed a bill that would restrict the use of e-cigarettes in the same locations as traditional cigarettes, such as restaurants and schools, require child-proof packaging of solutions, and increase the penalties and enforcement options for selling e-cigarettes to minors.

Last year the Federal Drug Administration released proposed regulations that would treat e-cigarettes as tobacco products but has yet to issue a final proposal.

This story was originally published September 2, 2015 at 3:15 PM with the headline "Tulare County takes steps to snuff out e-cigarettes."