Los Angeles has just banned e-cigarettes from public places. The ban affects offices, restaurants, but also parks, beaches, and recreation areas where tobacco is already banned.
East Coast / West Coast, same fight against electronic cigarettes! Indeed, in the United States, whether on the West or East coast, e-cigarettes obviously do not appeal to the mayors of major American cities. After Michael Bloomberg who completed his mandate as mayor of New York (December 2013) by banning electronic cigarettes in public places, it is today the municipality of Los Angeles which is waging war against this product.
Less dangerous does not mean safe
The city of “LA” on Tuesday, March 4 unanimously adopted a ban on electronic cigarettes in public places, such as workplaces, restaurants and bars. The ban also applies to parks, beaches, nightclubs and recreation areas where smoking is banned.
However, vaping clubs are not subject to this ban. Hookah clubs, where smoking is allowed, are also not affected. The use of electronic cigarettes is also allowed in films.
To explain this choice, Jonathan Fielding, director of sanitary services for Los Angeles County, told the press: “The e-cigarette, presented as a way to quit smoking, allows its users to inhale vapor. nicotine, but experts say they ignore the effects of the chemicals used. “And the latter added that” less dangerous does not mean safe. “Although less dangerous than traditional cigarettes, some e-cigarettes pose health risks,” he concluded. Result, lack of certainty on the effects of the product, vaping will therefore be prohibited in public places in the city of California.
In any case, this decision risks dealing a blow to the electronic cigarette industry, which is nevertheless flourishing in the United States, with an estimated turnover of between 1 and 1.7 billion dollars in 2013. Sales have also increased nine-fold between 2010 and 2012, according to several American studies.
E-cigarette: France is struggling to decide on this issue
For its part, France is struggling to decide on a possible ban on e-cigarettes in public places. In its newspaper for the month of May 2013, the Research and Safety Institute estimated that e-cigarettes present a risk at work. The Institute recalled, in this regard, that the propylene glycol, present in the product, is responsible, when inhaled, for eye irritation and breathing difficulties. The employer would therefore be entitled to prohibit it in the premises. This is what the Ministry of Health is already recommending to public transport companies.
The RATP has, for example, decided to prohibit the use of the product in all of its spaces, including vehicles. Obviously without much success, as the number of consumers continues to increase in metro trains and Parisian buses.
Finally, in its report submitted to Marisol Touraine in May, the French Office for the Prevention of Smoking (OFT) recommended, for its part, that “the use of electronic cigarettes be prohibited in public places, not in the name of of a health problem but for the exemplarity, because it can encourage to smoke ”, indicated its president Prof. Bertrand Dautzenberg, principal author of the first official report on the e-cigarette submitted to the government. At the same time, this pulmonologist continues to affirm that there is “no need to regulate this product so drastically because the product is much less dangerous than the traditional cigarette. “” In the name of the precautionary principle, the e-cigarette should be put everywhere. And lock up the cigarette as much as possible, ”he concludes.
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