Bill
to regulate e-cigarettes clears California legislative hurdle
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[August 28, 2015]
By Sharon Bernstein
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Reuters) - The
California State Senate on Thursday passed a bill to regulate electronic
cigarettes as tobacco products, sending the measure to the Assembly
where a similar bill died earlier this year.
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The measure was one of several anti-tobacco bills that advanced in
the Senate on Thursday, including one to raise the legal age for
buying cigarettes to 21 from 18.
The e-cigarette regulations, introduced by State Senator Mark Leno,
a Democrat from San Francisco, would ban use of the devices, also
known as vapor cigarettes or vapes, in the workplace, at schools and
other places where cigarettes already are forbidden, and would
require that they be sold in child-resistant packaging.
Sale of e-cigarettes to minors already is banned but the bill would
require businesses wishing to sell them to obtain a license.
E-cigarettes generally contain nicotine, drawn into the lungs after
it is heated in a flavored liquid. The vapor also contains some
formaldehyde and other chemicals, according to Leno.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2015/Aug/28/images/ads/current/elkhart_grain_daily_sda_022614.png) Electronic cigarette makers and distributors have said the devices
are a safer alternative to smoking. But Leno, whose bill is backed
by the American Cancer Society and numerous other public health
organizations, said they are highly addictive and can serve as a
gateway to tobacco dependence and regular smoking.
Earlier this year, California's former top public health official
said electronic cigarettes can lead to nicotine poisoning among
children and threaten the state's decades-long effort to reduce
tobacco use. According to a report by Dr. Ron Chapman, the former
director of the California Department of Public Health, 7.6 percent
of California's young adults aged 18-29 used electronic cigarettes
in 2013, up from 2.3 percent in 2012. Among children under the age
of five, incidents of nicotine poisoning rose from seven in 2012 to
154 in 2014, the report said.
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Leno's bill passed the Senate earlier this year but died in a
committee of the State Assembly in July. He re-introduced it as part
of a special session held this summer on public health issues.
The bill, which passed 25-12 in the Senate on Thursday, must still
get through the Assembly, but its committee membership is different
for the special session. Leno has said he expects it to have a
better chance of passing this time around.
The bill raising the age for buying cigarettes also died in the
Assembly last month and was re-introduced during the special
session.
(Reporting by Sharon Bernstein; Editing by Bill Trott and Sandra
Maler)
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