SB X2 5 Prohibits Smoking of E-Cigarettes at Workplaces, Schools, Restaurants and Hospitals
SACRAMENTO – The Assembly today, as part of the Legislature’s extraordinary session on health, passed legislation calling for new statewide regulations on electronic cigarettes. SB X2 5, authored by Senator Mark Leno, protects public health by ensuring that e-cigarettes are accurately defined as tobacco products and fall under the state’s existing smoke-free laws. It also requires that all e-cigarettes and liquids for the devices be sold in child-resistant packaging.
“Big Tobacco’s assault on youth and taxpayers was dealt a major setback today when the Legislature came to the rescue of Californians,” said Senator Leno, D-San Francisco. “Tobacco-free habits save lives and billions of taxpayer healthcare dollars.”
The state’s Smoke Free Act prohibits smoking at workplaces, schools, daycare centers, restaurants, bars, hospitals and on public transportation. It protects Californians from secondhand smoke and reduces the acceptability of smoking in general. E-cigarettes, however, do not fall under this existing law and are largely unregulated, despite the restriction of sales to minors. SB X2 5 closes this loophole and aligns state law with proposed federal regulations that define e-cigarettes as tobacco products. The bill is co-sponsored by a coalition of national health organizations, including the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, American Heart Association and American Lung Association.
Recent studies have shown that e-cigarettes pose potentially serious health risks to users and those who inhale the secondhand aerosols. In January, the California Department of Public Health confirmed that e-cigarettes emit at least 10 toxic chemicals, including formaldehyde, lead and nickel, found on the state’s Proposition 65 list of chemicals known to cause cancer, birth defects, or other reproductive harm.
Research also shows that e-cigarette use is climbing exponentially among young people who are drawn to the products’ enticing flavors like cotton candy, bubble gum and chocolate. E-cigarette use among middle and high school students tripled from 2013 to 2014, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
SB X2 5 passed the Senate last August. The Senate must approve technical amendments made to the legislation in the Assembly before it can go to the Governor’s desk.
The following was a press release issued by Senator Mark Leno’s Office
9 comments
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/e-cigarettes-around-95-less-harmful-than-tobacco-estimates-landmark-review
E cigarettes have nothing to do with tobacco. Are 95% safer that cigarettes, and are helping thousands of people give up smoking. Well done America, your corporate overlords must be very happy today. The big winners in this legislation are the big tobacco and pharmaceutical companies that pay your politicians! Huge breach of civil rights here and also huge step backwards for public health.
It’s a good news for traditional tobacco cigarette smokers to quit smoking by using vape pen or e-cigarettes. Vaping helps to quit bad habits of smoking without using burning tobacco. And vaping gives the same feeling of smoking with various flavors. Vaping is always better than smoking. Most of the people used a vape pen in the place of regular tobacco cigarette. Especially young guys used the Dr Dabber’s Vaporizer pen. So this vape pen looking stylish & more attractive for creating a lifestyle in the modern generation and gives the more features in their vape pen.” For more info about vaping or e-cigarette to view at: https://goo.gl/Gpg7O3
“Good news for traditional smokers to quit bad habits of smoking. Vaping is always better than smoking. Vaping gives the stimulates feeling of smoking without using burning tobacco. You can enjoy of smoking with various flavors as you like. Most of the people used a e-cigarette in the place of regular tobacco cigarette. In modern generation, young guys used a vape pen especially Dr. Dabber’s Vaporizer pen. So Dr Dabber’s Vaporizer Pen is looking stylish & more attractive for creating lifestyle.” For more info. about vaping or e-cigarette to view at: https://goo.gl/Gpg7O3
“Good news for traditional smokers to quit bad habits of smoking. Vaping is always better than smoking. Vaping gives the same feeling of smoking without using burning tobacco. You can enjoy of smoking with various flavors as you like. Most of the people used an e-cigarette in the place of regular tobacco cigarette. In modern generation, young guys used a vaporizer pen especially the Dr. Dabber’s Vaporizer Pen. So Dr. Dabber’s Vaporizer Pen is looking stylish & more attractive for creating lifestyle.” For more details about e-cigarette or vaping to view at: https://goo.gl/Gpg7O3
The preceding messages were brought to you by trolls from the e-cig industry.
We are ex smokers who have found the only way to a safer alternative. We have been lied to for years about the so called harms and we are slightly angry about it. These anti smoking groups told us to quit smoking and we did. We didn’t use their useless methods so they think we should go away. We are not going anywhere. I smoked for 40 years and have found the cure as millions of us have. http://www.ABillionlives.com
As a part of responsible journalism, please site these recent “studies” you claim that show e-cigs pose a bigger threat than traditional tobacco and that the second hand “aerosol” contains toxic chemicals. It is my opinion that you simply are reporting on hearsay and continuing to spread false information and these are simply NOT on the facts. Senator Leno is also grossly misinformed. Vaping is not smoking. Vape liquid is not tobacco. The vapor is not smoke. There are only 4 main ingredients in eliquids and when used under normal safe conditions, have been shown in ACTUAL studies that the second hand vapor is no more harmful that normal breath. Nicotine is optional and from first hand experience, I was able to successfully quit smoking 3 packs of cigarettes a day through the use of e-cigarettes. Also when I started vaping, I was at 24mg of nicotine and less than 3 years later, I now vape 0mg. If nicotine was such a harmful and addictive drug, whey would I be able to step down and totally eliminate nicotine all together? It’s because once you remove all of the other known carcinogens and KNOWN toxic chemicals in cigarettes, nicotine is not as dangerous as people want to claim it is. In fact, its no more dangerous than caffeine, but nobody is taxing the crap out of coffee to keep them out of the hands of 16 year olds. It’s about HARM REDUCTION! You have two options, get seriously sick and die from cancer causing traditional tobacco cigarettes or try an alternative that has been show to be 95% SAFER, without all the harmful chemicals. Legislation by taxing and banning doesnt solve the problem, all it does is kill off small business and make it harder for adults who rely on e-cigs to stay off of smoking to get the products they want. Address youth prevention in other ways and leave my adult products available to me at reasonable prices! Vaping is a solution to the tobacco problem. Want to fight cancer, get people off smoking tobacco. Want to get off tobacco, try vaping. VAPING IS NOT TOBACCO! And anyone who says it is, is blatantly lying to you and trying to scare you with misinformation! Big Pharma and Big Tobacco have serious money to lose in this game – just remember that.
“Big Tobacco’s assault on youth and taxpayers was dealt a major setback today when the Legislature came to the rescue of Californians”
That is literally the ravings of an insane person. Leno knows that though Tobacco companies sell a few very ineffective ecigs, that the industry is dominated by thousands of small mom and pop businesses, that were primarily opened to help adult smokers, by offering them what a mountain of independent science says, is a vastly reduced harm alternative to smoking. One example of that independent science can be seen here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/e-cigarettes-around-95-less-harmful-than-tobacco-estimates-landmark-review
What this is really about, is the story of a corrupt politician that accepted money from giant corporations to bankrupt well over a thousand, incredibly beneficial, small mom and pop businesses. He accepted this mission gleefully, even though the end result will be death for tens of thousands of Californians, who lose access to vastly reduced harm vapor products, and go back to smoking deadly combustible cigarettes. Because there was so much citizen opposition to this bill, he had to effectively cheat to jam it through, bypassing the voices of constituents.
Exactly how much tax revenue will be generated by a law that is so ridiculously aggressive, that it forces virtually 100% of these businesses to close, or relocate out of state? Aside from being corrupt Leno isn’t particularly smart, or even qualified to be an elected official IMO.
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