Bill Seeks To Snuff Unregulated Vaping

Sacramento, CA — Bills are again in play to snuff unregulated use of electronic cigarettes in the name of public safety.

The latest, introduced Thursday in a special session on health, includes re-worked legislation from Senator Mark Leno calling for the statewide regulation of e-cigarettes. His SB 2X-5 bill seeks to ensure that e-cigarettes are defined as tobacco products, closing the loophole that allows them to largely remain outside of the state’s existing, comprehensive smoke-free regulations.

This would prohibit their public use in locations like workplaces, schools, restaurants and hospitals. The proposed bill additionally requires child-resistant packaging for e-cigarette products. Assemblymember Jim Cooper introduced an identical bill so that the effort is concurrently being pushed in both houses.

Leno’s bill closely resembles his earlier introduced SB 140, previously reported, which recently failed in committee.

Of his continuing efforts to push regulations for the e-cigarette industry in the interest of public health, Leno states, “Decades ago, the tobacco industry tried to fool us into believing that filtered cigarettes were a healthier alternative to traditional cigarettes, and now they’re making the same claims about e-cigarettes. The fact is that they’re using a new delivery system, which is currently addicting the children of California to toxic nicotine.”

The bill is co-sponsored by a statewide coalition that includes the American Cancer Society, American Heart Association and American Lung Association.