There are several of us sitting in the Legislative Office Building in Hartford CT. We got here at 9am it is now 5:30pm and we are nowhere near our turn. Will let everyone know how it goes.
Connecticut: Attempt to Add E-Cigarettes to "Smoking" Ban (SB 990)
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Nothing yet. Believe it or not, it's almost 11:00 P.M. in CT, and vapers still haven't had the opportunity to speak. On the bright side, word is that it's turned into an impromptu vape meet. 
Also, they've gotten some good press: Conn. lawmakers consider e-cigarette ban
(For those wondering, the ANTZ from the Health Department were able to present testimony early (and out of turn).)
Also, they've gotten some good press: Conn. lawmakers consider e-cigarette ban
(For those wondering, the ANTZ from the Health Department were able to present testimony early (and out of turn).)
OMG! I can't believe this is still going on! Are they trying to out wait the vapors???
I doubt it. Sounds more like simple ineptitude . . . they have a long agenda with many bills to address, and they're not enforcing the 3-minute speaking rule.
So whats going on here? WFSB is reporting that the e-cig ban proposal was already put forth and finished.
They had a CT senator saying that "These devices emit harmful chemicals"
The news reporter said it is now up to the house to approve the ban.
They had a CT senator saying that "These devices emit harmful chemicals"
The news reporter said it is now up to the house to approve the ban.
(sarcasm tag)Must have been an oversight.
Connecticut is a liberal state. I blame the Republicans and George Bush.
Dems don't take money from big business and do their bidding. (/sarcasm tag off)
Connecticut is a liberal state. I blame the Republicans and George Bush.
Dems don't take money from big business and do their bidding. (/sarcasm tag off)
Because, as we know, news reporters always get it right.
Apparently, there were a few people from the Health Department there to speak on a few bills. They were permitted to give their testimony early on those bills (one of which was SB990).
To the best of my knowledge, there has been no testimony offered by vapers yet and there has been no vote by the Committee on SB990.
May be a good thing if vapers have the final say and the ANTZ testified earlier much of what they said will be forgotten.
Any chance they slipped an approval past y'all? It seems weird they would have SO many hours between.
Are you guys still there? If so, thank God it's Friday.
Go to the nearest Walmart and buy $15 sleeping bags.
And then camp out in front of the building.
And if you don't get to testify, go en masse to the nearest newspaper office tomorrow morning.
EDIT: Oh wait, it's now 2am where you are
EDIT: Wow, can't wait to hear what the hell happened
Go to the nearest Walmart and buy $15 sleeping bags.
And then camp out in front of the building.
And if you don't get to testify, go en masse to the nearest newspaper office tomorrow morning.
EDIT: Oh wait, it's now 2am where you are
EDIT: Wow, can't wait to hear what the hell happened
No, this is a public hearing for Joint State Senate and House members of the Public Health committee, there were a large number of bills being considered Raised bill SB 990 was one of many that witnesses came to testify about. Members of the committee hear testimony and issue a report on each of the bills that would be either favorable or unfavorable. The bill is not up for a vote as of yet.
My understanding from talking to the State rep that put forward a bill to ban cigarette smoking in cars with childeren age 7 and under, that it was tied to the bill SB 990 due to a procedural snafu. This proposal to ban smoking in cars with children is more than likely a no brainer to get approval. Hopefully the portion of the bill that proposing banning e-cigs in public can be removed from the bill before a vote.
The CT Health dept which testified early at the hearing did not seem prepared and when questioned by Rep Ziobron and admitted that they were in favor of the ban as a precautionary measure even though they had admitedly not seen any reports or studies indicating that second hand vaping posed any harm. Health department did state they were waiting on a study by the CDC, they will be waiting a long time as the CDC is not conducting any such study at this time.
Greg from CASAA tweeted around 2am that the vapers finally got to testify.
Just finished watching the final two videos. I just wanted to thank CASAA and all of the Vapers who showed up to the hearing today and put in very, very long hours waiting for their turn to speak. Thank you all!
In the spirit of positive re-inforcement, I have and encourage others to E-Mail CT Representative Melissa Ziobron (Melissa.Ziobron@housegop.ct.gov) Thanking her for questioning the wisdom of an E-cig ban. Representative Ziobron's questions exposed the CT Dept. of Health as being inept and unprepared on the subject of vaping.
I was lucky enough to have been there and I'm glad to say that the overall response from the representatives (the ones who had stayed, anyways) was generally positive. We were in it for the long haul (16 hours) but I'd like to think it payed (paid? Sorry, tired..) off. We'll hear more soon though. Thank you everyone for the e-mails sent in to the reps if you did so choose to write one, as well as the general support from the community!
OH! And thanks, of course, to those who decided to go out of their way to join us at the capitol! It was certainly not an easy day, but it was certainly worth it... For vaping, and for Liberty! =)
I swear it was like being held hostage just to speak lol
Everyone who attended made it absolutely worthwhile and I couldn't of asked for a better group of people to wait out the long haul with but truth be told that wait was torture. Was it worth it? Absolutely! Some of us even got quoted in our local newspapers, one news station did a pro positive message on T.V. getting out the message we are NOT smokers.
& Yes, the big issue that was going on was there not an enforcement of the 3 minute testimony rule which I'm sure could of pushed backed, after so many people showed up that day, much of the legislative process an hour possibly 2 hours late. At close to 6 pm there was still about 125 people to speak before even getting to our bill.
Everyone who attended made it absolutely worthwhile and I couldn't of asked for a better group of people to wait out the long haul with but truth be told that wait was torture. Was it worth it? Absolutely! Some of us even got quoted in our local newspapers, one news station did a pro positive message on T.V. getting out the message we are NOT smokers.
& Yes, the big issue that was going on was there not an enforcement of the 3 minute testimony rule which I'm sure could of pushed backed, after so many people showed up that day, much of the legislative process an hour possibly 2 hours late. At close to 6 pm there was still about 125 people to speak before even getting to our bill.
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She's in my district, e-mail being sent! I sent e-mail testimony, wasn't able to go in person.
Thanks to all of you who were able to attend such a LONG hearing! Great job!
I was so worried about this. Turns out CT does have a lot of vapers that are willing to stick up for vaping!
I would be really interested to hear how you guys that did go, liked the legislators responses.
i'd also like some names so I can know which legislators are on our side, kind-of?
I didn't even know this was streaming. Anyone have a link to a archive of the video?
I would be really interested to hear how you guys that did go, liked the legislators responses.
i'd also like some names so I can know which legislators are on our side, kind-of?
I didn't even know this was streaming. Anyone have a link to a archive of the video?
That's great about Ziobron. She was very supportive of us. I sent her a thank you e-mail in the middle of the day and she wrote back with a nice message.
Rep. Zoni (D), who just started serving 10 weeks ago, was also hugely supportive -- State Representative David Zoni
Zoni was in attendance at the time all of us spoke. He had a giant grin on his face throughout the testimony that only widened as the hearing went on. He even came out and talked to us in the hallway afterwards and was very nice.
There was no one there supporting the bill during the formal comment period. John Bailey from the American Heart Association was there, but he didn't actually speak. I spoke to him in the hallway after and he seemed to indicate that AHA (of course) supports banning e-cigs, but their bigger concern with SB990 is that (if I heard him right) it would allow "smoking room" businesses to open up. I think that's what he said.
The bill that was on after ours was a bill relating on palliative care (SB991). Unfortunately, I didn't realize at the time that ACS and ALA would be speaking, so everyone left the committee room after a long, long day (note to advocates: If you can look at the sign-in sheets for different bills when you're at a committee hearing, always look and see if ACS, ALA, etc. are testifying on another bill). I'm going to try and find out if I can see what happened there and if their lobbyists were asked about e-cigarettes.
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