Mad scramble at local level to better regulate vaping.
Amid dire public health warnings about the dangers, there’s been a scramble at the municipal level to regulate or ban e-cigarette sales
The burgeoning push to put the brakes on e-cigarette sales started, as these vanguard movements often do, in San Francisco, when the Board of Supervisors in June approved a ban on e-cigarette sales just as health concerns over the practice were starting to ramp up.
Since then, reports showing an alarming rise in vaping and e-cigarette use among teenagers have prompted a national debate — and increasingly panicked public health warnings amid reports that hundreds of people have been sickened by mysterious lung illnesses suspected of being related to vaping. At least four states have now issued all-out bans on electronic cigarettes.
While the e-cigarette industry has resisted the calls for vaping bans, saying their products help smokers quit, health officials say vaping is just as dangerous and addictive as cigarette smoking is.
“What I find most concerning about the rise of vaping is that people who would’ve never smoked otherwise, especially youth, are taking up the habit,” said Dr. Michael Blaha, a preventive cardiologist at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. “It’s one thing if you convert from cigarette smoking to vaping. It’s quite another thing to start up nicotine use
with vaping. And it often leads to using traditional tobacco products down the road.”
Though California lawmakers so far have punted on a statewide vaping ban, state health officials warned last week that people should stop vaping altogether, at least until investigators are able to determine what exactly is behind the spate of lung illnesses sweeping the state and the country. Last month, the California Department of Public Health said that since late June, it has identified 67 potential cases of acute lung disease in people with a recent history of vaping, including six in the Bay Area.
Prompted by these and other reports, there has been a mad scramble at the municipal level to better regulate vaping and reduce its use among young people. Here’s a look at how some Bay Area cities are trying to crack down:
San Francisco
In late June, San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to approve a first-of-its-kind ban on e-cigarette sales, preempting a nationwide push to crack down on the use of e-cigarettes, particularly by teenagers.
The bill — which is being challenged by San Francisco-based Juul, the nation’s largest e-cigarette company — would block the sale of e-cigarettes at San Francisco stores and halt the delivery of online e-cigarette purchases to addresses in the city until the products are reviewed and approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
San Jose
San Jose Councilwoman Magdalena Carrasco, who represents the city’s east side, has called for a ban on the sale of e-cigarettes and flavored tobacco products in the nation’s 10th largest city. Carrasco said she proposed the ban as a way to curb a sharp uptick in the number of young people vaping; a recent survey of more than 6,000 teenagers in Santa Clara County found that almost 1 in 3 had tried vaping.
In a new memo, this newspaper reported, the councilwoman called for an ordinance prohibiting the sale of e-cigarettes and flavored tobacco products that have not received approval from the FDA.
“While we have combatted the rise in cigarette use, vaping companies have been successful in recapturing their audience through the use of flavored products that are marketed towards children,” Carrasco said in a statement.
Livermore
Just weeks after Livermore became the second city in California, after San Francisco, to ban the sale of flavored tobacco within the city limits, the City Council did a bit of a U-turn and decided to let voters weigh in. On Sept. 1, the council decided to put the question of vaping on the March 3 ballot after a group obtained enough signatures in a referendum drive to either force an election or require the council to rescind its July ordinance.
The ordinance that will now go before Livermore would prohibit sales of all tobacco products within 1,000 feet of a “youth-populated area,” add strict limits for businesses selling vaping paraphernalia and establish the city’s first tobacco retailer license program. All electronic smoking device sales would be banned, with the exception of new products approved by the FDA, as would sales of vaping fluids, except those that are not flavored.
As this news organization has reported, the action came as Juul Labs, the San Francisco-based e-cigarette maker, has been waging a public opinion campaign to “make the devices more widely available, including in Livermore, saying they are a healthier alternative to traditional cigarettes.”
Richmond
In early September, the Richmond City Council said it would ban the sale of e-cigarette or vape products like Juul until they are reviewed by the FDA. The council voted unanimously to approve the ban and said it would go into effect in early 2020. This newspaper reported at the time that the ban would apply to all e-cigarette products that have not obtained a so-called premarket review order from the FDA, which is most of them, according to the proposal from Mayor Tom Butt.
Fremont
Joining more than 40 cites in California that have banned flavored tobacco products, Fremont’s City Council voted in early September to prohibit their sale within city limits.
The ban, this newspaper reported, includes cartridges used in vapes and e-cigarettes to menthol cigarettes and flavored cigarillos. The law also set minimum prices for cigarettes and cigars — under the new rules, a pack of 20 cigarettes or five cigars will now cost $8, while the sale of single cigars for less than $5 will be prohibited, city staff told this news organization.
The new ordinance requires local retailers who want to sell tobacco products to obtain an annual license from the city and undergo checks from city code enforcement staff.
Santa Clara County
The Board of Supervisors recently voted to consider options for banning the sale and distribution of e-cigarettes in all areas of unincorporated Santa Clara County. The county has banned flavored tobacco, except in adult-only stores, since 2014, but that ban did not include e-cigarettes. If approved, the newly proposed ban could go into effect in a matter of weeks after the board considers the issue at its Nov. 5 meeting.
Berkeley
At its meeting in late July, the Berkeley City Council voted unanimously to prohibit the sale of flavored tobacco, along with all flavored “e-liquid” and “electronic nicotine delivery systems.”
The ordinance, which will come back before the council this fall for a second reading, also sets price and size minimums for cigar and cigarette packs. In 2015, Berkeley officials created a so-called buffer zone, outlawing the sale of flavored tobacco within 600 feet of schools. The measure passed this summer expands those restrictions citywide, similar to bans in neighboring cities like Richmond, Oakland and San Francisco, but it applies only to flavored products, and not all e-cigarettes.
Lafayette
The Lafayette City Council in May approved a ban on flavored tobacco products on a 5-0 vote.
El Cerrito
In 2015, the City Council enacted a new licensing program for stores selling tobacco products that includes a ban on sales of flavored tobaccos that are alleged to entice young people into becoming smokers. The rules also limit new tobacco retailers at locations within 1,000 feet of existing retailers and 500 feet from schools, recreation centers, libraries and parks.