San Francisco considers banning e-cigarettes-if it looks, feels or functions like cig, it is one

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- They look like cigarettes and they have nicotine, but no smoke. Electronic cigarettes are gaining in popularity, though now there is a push in San Francisco to ban them, just like regular cigarettes. That is angering the e-cigarette industry.


SFO banned electronic cigarettes earlier this month and now the city is in the first stages of banning them. The plan is to fold them into the current smoking ordinance, saying that anything that looks, feels or functions like a cigarette is a cigarette and has to be banned from public places. It is a blow to people who say e-cigarettes are a great substitute to regular cigarettes.

Heather Ayeres uses an e-cigarette. She has been smoking since she was 14 and sees an electronic cigarette as a healthy alternative.

"They feel like a cigarette when you hold them, they work like a cigarette, but they don't have the bad properties of cigarettes," Ayeres said.

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local/san_francisco&id=8089763

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and the states and tobacco companies are losing revenue.

So now, with an e-cig there's none of the second hand smoke issues, so they're banning it because....why?

Puritan



Nothing you enjoy is allowed.

Of course that's what they SAID, when the bans started, but now we know that was a lie.

A reasoning classic.

Since when do municipalities ban everything that could be harmful to people?

You shouldn't put the onus on others to find out if they are e-cigs or real...

Mine looks nothing like a cigarette, it looks more like a nose trimmer, to be honest.

Quite honestly, it shouldn't be illegal for someone to walk around with an unlit cigarette in their mouth either. The laws ban smoking in certain public areas, not the mere possession of cigarettes.

after he stopped smoking - walked around with an unlit cigarette in his mouth, and he did that in places where smoking wasn't allowed even before he quit. Since he wasn't actually smoking, no one even gave him a second look. Of course, that was in the 1980's, before some people became convinced that LOOKING at cigarettes (or facsimiles thereof) was harmful. Nowadays he'd get hassled for sure.

"Excuse me, sir, smoking isn't allowed here."

"Oh, thanks, but I'm not smoking. This isn't a real cigarette. There's no tobacco and nothing is burning. See? No smoke and no ash. It's only flavored water vapor."

"Great. Carry on then."



Even so, I do think it's wise for e-cig users to choose models that don't look like actual cigarettes, at least for use in public places. They come in different colors. I've seen black ones with blue LED's on the end. No one could possibly mistake those for a real cigarette. Then, if someone harasses you over it, you know right off the bat that you're dealing with a loon. Only a real crazy-ass fanatic would freak out over those.

Unless, of course, it's a joint belonging to one of the thousands of medical MJ patients in SF. :-)

ha hahahahahahaha!!! Just because it isn't as bad as regular smoking does NOT make it "healthy".

That's like saying one scoop of ice cream is a "healthy alternative" to a full hot fudge sundae.

http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2007/06/nicotine

It all depends what you mean by the word "healthy".

I know I never got colds when I smoked.

Your comparison fails terribly. Maybe if you were to compare a hot fudge sundae to a single, ice cream flavored jelly bean, you may have a more adequate comparison. Ecigs are literally thousands of times less dangerous than real cigarettes. There is no tar, no actual smoke, no crazy chemicals, no combustion. No chance of emphysema and causes none of the type of lung damage that brings on lung cancer. The only unhealthy part is the nicotine and by itself its not much different than caffeine. Ecigs are going to save lives.

I know, because when my husband's Ecig went on the fritz, he went out and bought a pack of cigarettes.

If people really want to quit, they have to quit the nicotine habit. These things don't help with that at all.

That said, I don't agree with a ban on them.

I've used only my ecig. You aren't smoking when you are using the ecig. Smoking requires combustion. There is no combustion where an ecig is involved.

Having a nicotine habit does not equal smoking. Smoking equals smoking. Furthermore, if you wanted to use an ecig to get off nicotine, you very well could. You just gradually lower the nicotine amount in the refills all the way down to zero nicotine. This is no different than how the patch or the gum works except its a million times less stressful.

I don't care about having a nicotine habit. I replace cigs with ecigs and am no longer a smoker because of it. I'll worry about the nicotine whenever I started worrying about caffeine.

and I say this as a vehement anti-smoker.

Have to break out that quill and ink from the closet...

And I will need a material safety data sheet on the ink before I can let you use it.

And if a kid takes a straw and pretends to smoke it like a cigarette, are they prosecuted as a minor, or an adult?

What about people who chew on their pen caps while pausing in the composition process? Don't tell me that doesn't take away from worker productivity. If the pen isn't able to reach the steno pad, by criminy there can't be any real work going on! I'm outraged!!

that would surely fly in San Fran.

And that's no surprise to me.

Yet they have nicotine...well, what do you expect from an addict?

then its not nearly as dangerous. And you can get them nicotine free anyway. You know what part of smoking is causing the lung cancer and the emphysema? The SMOKE part, the part where you inhale copious amounts of combusted, highly carcinogenic substances into your lungs. You know what happens when you use an Ecig? None of that.

God damn cigarrette Nazis. Someone comes up with a way to eliminate a huge chunk of the problem, (now ex) smokers like myself gladly switch over and you still bitch and get a holier than thou attitude about it.

:eyes:

Ban, control, prohibit, regulate...are antithetical to freedom.

That people are somehow offended by the way cigarettes look and don't want any sort of social acceptance of that look.

I wouldn't be surprised if the reaction was the same even if it was 100% water vapor and 0% nicotine.