Boston has already taken the dramatic step of banning the use of electronic cigarettes in public places, including outdoor parks. But as usual the bureaucratic reach of city health officials exceeds their grasp. So they are calling on the federal government to enact even stricter national limits on the advertising, sale and use of e-cigarettes.
The heart of the matter for us is e-cigarette manufacturers are making claims about the advantages of e-cigarettes that havent really been established, Boston Public Health Commissioner Barbara Ferrer told the Herald last week in advance of her trip to Washington, D.C., where she urged stricter regulation of e-cigarettes by the Food and Drug Administration.
That is rather an astonishing statement on Ferrers part. Because if verifying claims about the true health impact of e-cigarettes is the standard, the city has fallen embarrassingly short of its own demands.
