Westchester County bans e-cig use indoors

• Indoor vaping banned at Westchester County workplaces%2C restaurants and bars.
• Lawmakers say e-cigarettes are marketed towards young people.
• Potential illegal drugs used in devices%2C Legislator Ken Jenkins says.

Vapers' will have to take their electronic cigarettes outdoors now that Westchester County lawmakers have approved expanding a countywide indoor smoking ban to include e-cigarettes and other devices.

E-cigarette use has doubled since 2011 even as tobacco use has declined. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control reported the percentage of teens who 'vape' — inhaling the vapors created by heating liquid nicotine — tripled between 2013 and 2014.

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Legislator Catherine Borgia, the Democratic majority leader who proposed the bill, said e-cigarette companies have used marketing techniques similar to those used by tobacco companies years ago.

"And I think that that is not accidental; certainly flavors like grape and bubblegum and cotton candy seem to be pretty deliberately marketed towards young people," she said prior to the vote Monday night.

Westchester's smoking ban was passed in 2003 and prohibits tobacco use in workplaces, restaurants and bars. But the emerging popularity of e-cigarettes brought up new questions about whether vaping brings the same dangers to users as tobacco smokers and whether e-cigarettes are an effective tool to quit tobacco use.

E-cigarettes use liquid rather than burning tobacco. Legislator Ken Jenkins, D-Yonkers, said some are using the devices for drugs other than nicotine.

"Unfortunately, it's a scenario with those vaporizers that you don't know what things are going on in those," he said. "Some of our young people are trying to make use of the medical marijuana laws that have not been fully established at this particular point in time and participating in, basically, illegal activity."

E-cigarettes can still be used outdoors and in private quarters and can be purchased legally by those 18 or older.

The New York state Legislature is considering upping the age from 18 to 21 to buy tobacco and nicotine products. It is also considering a statewide ban on indoor e-cigarette use.

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WHAT ARE E-CIGARETTES?

•Plastic or metal tubes, usually the size of a cigarette, that heat a liquid nicotine solution instead of burning tobacco. That creates vapor that users inhale.

• The nicotine-infused vapor looks like smoke but doesn't contain the thousands of chemicals, tar or odor of regular cigarettes.

•Some smokers use e-cigarettes as a way to quit smoking tobacco, or to cut down.

•The number of users has grown from a few thousand in 2006 to several million worldwide.

•Sales are estimated to have reached nearly $2 billion in 2013.

•There's not much scientific evidence showing e-cigarettes help smokers quit or smoke less, and it's unclear how safe they are.

Associated Press