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 There is growing concern about the health risks from e-cigarettes,
also known as vapor cigarettes or vapes, which are not lit or smoked
like their old-fashioned counterparts, but do generally release
nicotine in a heated liquid.
"Whether you get people hooked on e-cigarettes or regular
cigarettes, it’s nicotine addiction and it kills," Democratic state
Senator Mark Leno, who introduced the bill, said in a telephone
interview. "We're going to see hundreds of thousands of family
members and friends die from e-cigarette use just like we did from
traditional tobacco use."
The bill would add e-cigarettes to the list of tobacco products
regulated in the state, which already forbids smoking in workplaces,
restaurants, bars and other places. It would also ramp up penalties
for selling e-cigarettes, which come in such flavors as bubble gum
and chocolate, to minors.
California would be the fourth U.S. state to treat them like regular
cigarettes, and the 23rd to regulate e-cigarettes in some way. In
California, the most populous U.S. state, 122 cities and counties
have banned the use of e-cigarettes in certain public places.
Second-hand e-cigarette emissions contain cancer-causing chemicals,
and could put children and others at risk if they are in proximity
to users, said Kimberly Amazeen, vice president of public policy and
advocacy for the American Lung Association in California.
The bill was criticized Monday by a group calling itself the
American Vaping Association, which said it would harm smokers who
are trying to quit by switching to e-cigarettes, which are marketed
as a safer alternative to the combustible kind because they do not
flood the lungs with smoke.
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"California smokers deserve truthful information about smoke-free
alternatives, not hype and conjecture designed to scare them away
from attempting to quit with these innovative technology products,"
Gregory Conley, president of the American Vaping Association, said
in a press release.
But Leno, whose bill is backed by the American Cancer Society, the
American Heart Association and the American Lung Association, said
the vapor released by the e-cigarettes contains carcinogens, and the
nicotine in them is addictive.
(Reporting by Sharon Bernstein; Editing by Grant McCool)
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