Assembly adds e-cigarettes
to indoor smoking ban
E-cigarettes and vaporizers will join cigarettes in
being banned from most indoor public places in Rhode Island under legislation
that passed the General Assembly and is now headed to the governor.
The legislation (2017-S 0446Aaa, 2017-H 5821Aaa), sponsored by Senate President Dominick Ruggerio and Rep. Teresa Tanzi,
adds the use of e-cigarettes, vaporizers, and similar products designed for
electronic, vapor or aerosol delivery of nicotine, to the definition of
“smoking” in the Public Health and Workplace Safety Act.
That 2005 law banned smoking in in nearly all enclosed
areas of places that are open to the public, including private businesses,
restaurants, most bars, public restrooms, athletic fields, health care
facilities, shopping malls, bingo facilities, common areas of apartment
buildings with more than four units and many other places.
The legislation, which cleared a final vote in the House, is meant, in part, to protect workers and the public from the effects of secondhand nicotine vapors, and to eliminate an avenue that is feeding addiction even as smoking rates are otherwise declining. In Rhode Island and nationwide, use of e-cigarettes by youth has surpassed use of conventional cigarettes.
“While cigarette smoking has been in decline for many
years, the use of electronic cigarettes is increasing, especially amongst young
people,” said President Ruggerio.
“If such products are excluded from the
indoor smoking ban it has the potential to send the message that these devices
are safe. By adding them to the ban it makes it clear that they can be just as
addictive and harmful as conventional cigarettes.”
Said Representative Tanzi (D-Dist. 34, South Kingstown,
Narragansett), “Ultimately, this loophole in our smoking ban benefits only Big
Tobacco as an insidious way of hooking more smokers. Many products are made
with flavors and names that are an obvious attempt to appeal to kids. But they
also serve as a means to feed addiction among adults.
“Most adult users of electronic cigarettes are ‘dual
users,’ meaning they also smoke conventional cigarettes. Excluding electronic
cigarettes from the ban allows them to use e-cigarettes all the time in places
where cigarettes aren’t allowed, fueling addiction to both forms of nicotine.
Including them in the indoor ban not only sends a clearer message, but also
eliminates that avenue by which the tobacco companies can increase demand for
their lethal products.”
E-cigarettes and similar products were not widely used
in 2004 when Rhode Island’s smoking ban was enacted.
The design of the devices vary widely, but are typically
metal or plastic tubes that contain a cartridge filled with a liquid that is
vaporized by a battery-powered heating element.
The resulting aerosol is inhaled by users when they draw
on the device, as they would a regular cigarette. The user then exhales a cloud
of secondhand aerosol that includes toxins and other pollutants.
While the levels of those toxins is generally lower than
those of conventional cigarettes, they can contain heavy metals, ultrafine
particulate, and cancer-causing agents like acrolein, as well as flavorings
whose safety has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration only for
food, not for inhalation. Furthermore, they are not an FDA-approved method for
quitting smoking.
The World Health Organization recommends that electronic
smoking devices not be used indoors, especially in smoke-free environments, to
minimize the risk to bystanders of breathing emissions and to avoid undermining
the enforcement of smoke-free laws.
The legislation has the support of the Department of
Health, American Lung Association, the Rhode Island Academy of Family
Physicians, the New England Laborers’ Health and Safety Fund, the American
Heart Association and the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids.
The legislation is cosponsored in the House by Rep.
Kathleen A. Fogarty (D-Dist. 35, South Kingstown), Rep. Shelby Maldonado
(D-Dist. 56, Central Falls), Rep. Jean Philippe Barros (D-Dist. 59, Pawtucket)
and Rep. Edith H. Ajello (D-Dist. 1, Providence). Senate cosponsors include
Sen. V. Susan Sosnowski (D-Dist. 37, New Shoreham, South Kingstown), Sen.
Joshua Miller (D-Dist. 28, Cranston, Providence), Sen. Cynthia A. Coyne
(D-Dist. 32, Barrington, Bristol, East Providence) and Sen. James A. Seveney
(D-Dist. 11, Bristol, Portsmouth, Tiverton).