By The Long Beach City Council voted unanimously to categorize electronic cigarettes with tobacco products, thereby restricting the use of e-cigarettes to designated smoking areas.
On March 4, the council declared that use of e-cigarettes and any other vaping devices are prohibited in restaurants, workplaces and other public spaces.
Due to the limited research on e-cigarettes, the Food and Drug Administration cannot determine if the long-term effects of e-cigarettes are harmful, according to the FDA website.
Long Beach vape shop operator James Pappas, who spoke at the City Council meeting, said that only four ingredients are in e-cigarettes, all of which are “not harmful.”
Among the ingredients used in e-cigarettes and vapes are propylene glycol, an FDA approved germicidal agent; vegetable glycerin, a “safe” chemical present in smoke machines; flavoring derived from perfumeries or flavor houses; and nicotine.
Pappas said that nicotine levels in e-cigarettes vary from zero to six milligrams, depending on the customer’s preference.
Freshman construction engineering management major Abdullah Essa said the ability to control the nicotine levels in e-cigarettes has helped lower his addiction to traditional cigarettes.
“The goal is to stop smoking,” he said.
The 24-year-old said that after smoking cigarettes for two years, he has reduced his smoking habits from smoking traditional cigarettes twice a day to using e-cigarettes or hookahs about twice a week. He has been using e-cigarettes for about five months.
He also said that categorizing e-cigarettes with tobacco products was a “bad decision” by the City Council, because those who vape will be tempted to smoke tobacco.
On the other hand, Fred Grancus, a surgeon at the cancer research and treatment center City of Hope, told the council that treating e-cigarettes as a “medical device” rather than a tobacco product may “undo the good work” Long Beach has done to control tobacco products for the past 30 years.
Grancus said that e-cigarettes are “intended for sale to children” because they have flavoring like “butter-cake,” “snicker-doodle” and “licorice.” Instead of helping people quit smoking, e-cigarettes may “create a whole new generation of people at risk for tobacco products,” he said.
According to the Center of Disease Control and Prevention, the amount of e-cigarette use in middle and high school students doubled from 2011 to 2012.
Long Beach City Health Officer Mitchell Kushner said he believes the e-cigarette business will continue to grow.
“I think these numbers are going to be higher [because] it’s considered cool and glamorous, and it’s really caught on in the youth market,” Kushner said. “Granted it’s healthier — maybe, we’ll find out — than smoking cigarettes, but they’re so addicted to the nicotine that they’re like ‘chain vaping.’”
Another issue e-cigarette regulation poses is monitoring other substances like marijuana, which people can consume with their e-cigarettes, said Al Austin, 8th district council member.
As for whether the second-hand vapor emitted by e-cigarettes is harmful, Kushner said “we don’t know yet.”
“There hasn’t been enough evidence or research to see one way or the other,” he said. “So, when you have a situation like that, just because something is unregulated, it doesn’t mean that it’s safe [or] healthy.”
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