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The electronic cigarette is either a) a near-miraculous smoking-cessation tool that has enabled untold thousands of smokers to ditch tobacco or b) a rapidly growing menace to public health. Or, it could be both. Researchers aren’t really sure and won’t be until they can study the long-term health effects of vaping.
The FDA is still puzzling over how to regulate a $1.5-billion industry that has seen its sales more than quadruple over the past four years, leaving states and municipalities to feel things out on their own.
In North Texas, a couple of cities are leaning toward tougher regulation, if not on the e-cigarette itself then on the increasingly ubiquitous storefronts that sell them. WFAA reported on Tuesday night that the Mansfield City Council voted unanimously to put a six-month moratorium on new e-cigarette stores while it considers where vaping fits into the city’s smoking ordinance.
Further north, the city of Richardson is considering a rule requiring e-cig shops to obtain a specific use permit from the City Council before opening.
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“We just want to make sure that it is appropriate for that location and that it will complement the other businesses and it’s something we can be proud of — that the community can support,” assistant city manager Don Magner told CBS 11.
Eventually, the FDA will come out with rules governing the labeling and distribution of e-cigarettes, but cities will still be left to decide things like whether regulations like indoor smoking bans apply to vaping as well. That’s when the debate will get really interesting.
