News

By Sallie James

    Smokers who “vape” on electronic cigarettes will have to follow the same smoking rules as regular cigarette smokers, Boca Raton City Council members agreed on April 28.
    What that means is this: Wherever indoor cigarette smoking is prohibited in this city, so is vaping.
    City officials voted 4-1 to approve an ordinance that places the same restrictions on e-cigarette use that the city has already placed on regular cigarette smoking, linking the action to the Florida Indoor Clean Air Act.
    “This ordinance protects the public health, individual rights and protects small businesses and entrepreneurs,” said Councilman Scott Singer.
    Councilman Robert Weinroth voted “no,” after proposing a failed amendment that would have confined the restrictions to indoor municipal properties.
    Nothing in the ordinance prohibits outdoor use of e-cigarettes or in a private residence.
    The vote to approve did not sit well with some.
    Lake Worth resident Larry Torick, who works in Boca Raton and has relied on e-cigarette usage to help him quit 17 years of smoking, said he is worried he can no longer vape at his desk in his private office.
    “I think they are rushing to judgment. I believe they don’t know all the science,” Torick said.
    Boca Raton resident April Davis said the action takes away the public’s right to choose.
    “They are tagging this to the Florida Indoor Clean Act, which doesn’t refer to e-cigarettes. The Florida Legislature is going to regulate this at some point. I think we need to wait and let the Legislature do their job.”
    The city’s intent is to protect the public from any potential health hazards associated with exposure to secondhand e-cigarette aerosol or vapor while preserving the rights of e-cigarette users and business owners in the same manner as users of tobacco cigarettes and business owners who sell them, according to the ordinance.
    Singer, who proposed the ordinance, said city officials reviewed 70 pages of research on the issue, including several public health reports.
    He called the new ordinance “very different” from another vaping ordinance the city considered in February that would have “vastly over-regulated” the issue. That ordinance was tabled.
    Under the new ordinance, e-cigarette usage is allowed within any retail e-cigarette shop in the city or any enclosed indoor workplace in the city where tobacco smoking is permitted under the Florida Clean Indoor Air Act.
    Violation of the ordinance is punishable by a fine up to $500.