DeKalb County (Atlanta) attempting to ban indoor use of e-cigarettes

DataPhreak;3172949 said:

Alright. It's outright plagerism of Bill Godshall's email to Macon, GA, but well, he's good at what he does. Here's what I sent.

Dear DeKalb County Board of Commisioners:

Please amend the definition of "smoking" [Sec. 16-102. Definitions] in Macon's proposed smokefree workplace ordinance to eliminate its current ban on electronic cigarette usage since e-cigarettes emit No Smoke, pose no known health risks to users or nonusers, appear to be at least 99% less hazardous than cigarettes, and have helped hundreds of thousands of smokers quit or sharply reduce cigarette consumption.

While I strongly support your proposal to ban to ban smoking in one hundred or so workplaces (that are currently exempt from Georgia's smokefree workplace law), there is no public health justification for banning the use of smokefree e-cigarettes in tens of thousands of DeKalb County workplaces, parks, and homes, and it is insincere to define the use of smokefree products as "smoking".

Banning the use of e-cigarettes in workplaces can harm public health because it would compel current e-cigarette consumers to inhale hazardous tobacco smoke pollution (at outdoor smoking areas), would encourage some e-cigarette consumers to switch back to lethal tobacco cigarettes, and would discourage smokers from reducing their health risks by switching to or substituting e-cigarettes. Besides, the "purpose" and "whereas" sections of the proposed ordinance don't mention e-cigarettes.

Recent published studies have found that e-cigarettes pose exponentially fewer health risks than cigarettes because they emit no tobacco smoke, carbon monixide or airborne particulates, and they also relieve cravings of smokers.

Ecigarette mist harmless, inhaled or exhaled
http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...ttes-vansickel-2010-e-cigarettes-clinical.pdf
http://www.healthnz.co.nz/2010 Bullen ECig.pdf
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/centers-institutes/population-development/files/article.jphp.pdf
SEIKATSUEISEI : Vol. 55 (2011) , No. 1 p.59-64
About 500,000 smokers in Ameria have quit smoking or sharply reduced cigarette consumption by switching to e-cigarettes in the past several years, and many/most e-cigarette consumers have found the products effective for quitting smoking and improving respiratory health, which has been confirmed by several recently published surveys at



http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1471-2458-10-231.pdf
http://www.ajpmonline.org/webfiles/images/journals/AMEPRE/AMEPRE3013.pdf
THR2010. (tobaccoharmreduction.org) (Chapter 9)
In ruling that the FDA can only regulate e-cigarettes as tobacco products (not drug devices), Federal Judge Richard Leon pointed out that the FDA offered no evidence that e-cigarettes posed health risks. https://ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2009cv0771-54 In December the DC Court of Appeals upheld Judge Leon's ruling. http://www.casaa.org/files/ct app opinion on injunction.pdf

Just a few weeks ago, the New Zealand Ministry of Health informed the NZ Parliamentary Health Committee that e-cigarette usage is far safer than smoking E-cigarette - personal nicotine vapouriser and http://www.endsmoking.org.nz/MoH on ecigs etc.pdf According to the NZ Ministry of Health “As the e-cigarette delivers only nicotine in a mist of propylene glycol, without the other 4,000 or so other chemicals in tobacco smoke, it is far safer than smoking.” and "The current safety data would therefore suggest that the e-cigarette poses few risks to people, and is safer than continuing to smoke."

In sum, the rapidly mounting evidence indicates that usage of e-cigarettes by smokers substantially benefits both consumer and public health, there is no evidence that e-cigarettes pose any harm to users or nonusers, and that hundreds of thousands of smokers have already quit or sharply reduced cigarette consumption by switching to e-cigarettes.

Once again, I encourage the DeKalb County Board of Commisioners to correct and amend the definition of "smoking" in its proposed smokefree workplace ordinance by eliminating the proposed usage ban for smokefree e-cigarettes.

Feel free to contact me any time for more information or for clarification.


Sincerely,

J. Austin Smith

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And it's a hell of a lot nicer than what I originally wanted to send. If anyone else wants to send this or their own email, CASAA has email addresses for all of the board members at this link.

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