Alarmed at Increase in Smoking, New York Regulators Resist a Much Safer Alternative

The share of adult New Yorkers who smoke
cigarettes, which fell from 21.5 percent in 2002 to a low of 14
percent in 2010, continues to rise, reaching 16.1 percent last
year, according to
survey data released yesterday. The New York City Department of
Health and Mental Hygiene blames cuts to its tobacco control
programs, which received $7.1 million last fiscal year, about half
the budget in fiscal year 2009. I am skeptical. To the extent that
government policies help explain the drop in smoking during the
Bloomberg administration, I suspect that crushing taxes and severe
restrictions on the locations where people are allowed to light up
played a more important role than the health department’s
“public-awareness campaigns.”

In any case, if the city’s public health officials are genuinely
concerned about the uptick in smoking, why did they support a
crackdown on a much safer alternative? Last year New York became
one of the first major cities to
treat electronic cigarettes like their combustible competitors,
despite a complete lack of evidence that they pose a hazard to
bystanders. By forcing vapers out into the cold, rain, or heat
along with smokers, the city council eliminated an important
advantage that helped made e-cigarettes an appealing option for
people thinking about switching.

“Instead of supporting their use to help people quit
smoking,” notes Jeff Stier of the National Center for Public Policy
Research, “the New York City public health establishment spends
resources demonizing e-cigarettes and making them less appealing to
potential switchers.” The main rationale offered
by New York City Health Commissioner Thomas Farley and other
supporters of the vaping ban—that e-cigarettes might confuse people
because they look like the real thing—was worse than frivolous,
sacrificing the interests (and potentially the lives) of actual
adult smokers for the sake of imaginary children who might suddenly
decide smoking is cool after all.

Reason TV covers opposition to the vaping ban: