E-Cigarette Ban Proposed in Chicago

Chicago is on its way to becoming the first major
U.S. city to ban electronic cigarette use in public and to place
other regulations on the product.

In December, the city council will vote on a proposal to amend
and expand a current tobacco ordinance. Backed by Mayor Rahm
Emanuel and aldermen Will Burns and Ed Burke, this measure would
ban the sale of e-cigarettes to minors, require retailers to gain a
license to sell e-cigarette products, force them to sell these
products behind the counter, and – despite the fact that
e-cigarettes contain no tobacco – apply the same public
prohibitions to them as tobacco products. The Chicago
Sun-Times
explains that this means “adults would be prohibited from that
smoking e-cigarettes in virtually all of indoor Chicago except
private homes and vehicles, hotel rooms designated for smoking and
at least 10 feet away from building entrances.” If it passes, the
ordinance will take effect in January 2014.

All of this, city officials assure, is aimed at protecting
children. Chicago Health Commissioner Dr. Bechara Choucair told the
Sun-Times that it’s not enough that “we’ve seen a decrease
[in youth smoking], then a plateau. We really need to break that
plateau.” Choucair hopes to stamp out youth use of both cigarettes
and e-cigarettes.

Erika Sward, vice president of the American Lung Association,

voiced approval for Chicago’s planned ban, saying, “We don’t
want to have people now exposed to e-cigarette second-hand
emissions until we know more about them.”

But can government officials actually convince people to stop
smoking cigarettes while also preventing them from utilizing
alternatives? Reason‘s Jacob Sullum has extensively
covered e-cigarette issues and has noted
that e-cigarettes are
not a gateway to tobacco use, rather, “because e-cigarettes
more closely simulate the experience of smoking than nicotine gum,
patches, or inhalers do, they may be more
effective in helping smokers quit.” Likewise, addressing
concerns about safety, he has
pointed out that “the health hazards of vaping pale beside
those of smoking,” so the decrease in tobacco use that has
coincided with the
rise of e-cigarette use in young people “might signal
successful harm reduction.”