New York City set to ban e-cigarettes in public places
Image from Shutterstock.
New York City is expected to include electronic cigarettes in its general ban on smoking indoors in public places, the Associated Press reports.
The City Council has voted overwhelmingly, 43-8, to include e-cigarettes in the ban and Mayor Bloomberg is expected to sign it.
While e-smokers get nicotine via vapors from the deivce, other and more harmful aspects of tobacco smoke are avoided. But the device is still controversial.
City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who represents Manhattan’s lower west side, said at the council meeting Thursday that permitting e-cigarettes where regular ones are banned could “renormalize” smoking. “We don’t want a step backward with that,” she said.
The FDA has said it would assert control over e-cigarettes this month, but hasn’t done any rule-making yet, Time reports.
