placebo effect wrote
Actually, the new regulation only bans e-cigarette usage in about 5% of workplaces (i.e. places where children have access).
After the hearing, many of us went again to a nearby bar, "Cheers" and were joined by Tacoma Board of Health members Muri and Flemming. Chairman Muri has been a strong proponent of e-cigs since he learned about them 4 months ago and he deserves a lot of credit for ensuring that the public got the opportunity to be heard and making the exemptions.
I spoke to Dr. Flemming and although he understood why we were unhappy with any restrictions, he explained that the revisions were written to be intentionally vague and unenforceable. Keep in mind that
vaping in a non-exempted public space is NOT a violation of this regulation--the only way to violate this reg is if it can be shown that a property owner or manager does not give due diligence to enforce the smoking ban...and with absolutely no guidance in this bill on how a property owner might be able to prevent people from using smoke-free
tobacco products, that isn't going to happen! Really, the biggest problem with this regulation is that it will be difficult to overturn because the issue probably won't get revisited until it is due for review in 2 years.
This is politics at its basest form. The Tacoma-Pierce County Board of Health has at least 4 elitists for whom their own opinion is more important than any science or facts and they were ready and able to enact a complete ban on e-cigs. Fortunately, thanks to Chairman Muri and Dr. Flemming along with Mary Ann Miller from the Lakewood Chamber of Commerce, Steve & Kim Thompson from the Vaporium, Carl from Refindvapor.com and dozens of testimonies from vapers and non-vapers alike, we were able to move the opinions of all the board at least enough to approve these exemptions and pass LIMITED restrictions on
vaping that are unenforceable.
We may not have gotten what we wanted, but we tried this time and IMO we got what we needed.