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On June 1, 2009, Iowa County Ordinance No. 600.26 was approved prohibiting smoking in and around county buildings, property and in county owned vehicles. The signs are posted outside every county owned building across Iowa County, with the understanding that no one can smoke within 25 feet of the entrance to the building.
"No person shall smoke or carry a lighted cigarette, cigar, pipe or any other lighted smoking equipment in any vehicles or buildings," Section 1 states.
Reasons listed in the ordinance for banning smoking include:
-secondhand tobacco smoke has been classified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a known cause of lung cancer and there is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke;
-secondhand tobacco smoke increases the risk of cancer and poses other significant health threats including asthma, emphysema, heart attack and stroke;
-the EPA warns that the concentration of breathable particles from secondhand tobacco smoke in a closed motor vehicle is more than 133 times higher than the current average annual EPA standard;
-the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air Condition Engineers cautions that no ventilation systems are designed to remove the hazardous toxins and gases of secondhand smoke from the air;
-cigarettes are the leading cause of fatal fires;
-it is everyone's right to breathe clean indoor air.
At a recent Board of Health meeting, board members voted to move forward with a proposal that adds to the Iowa County Smoking Ordinance the ban of electronic cigarettes or e-cigarettes in and around county buildings, property and county owned vehicles.
E-cigarettes have been gaining popularity in the United States because of their unconventional way for smokers to get their nicotine fix without inhaling hazardous chemicals found in a tobacco cigarette. The tobacco alternative uses a battery powered device filled with liquid nicotine, dissolved in a solution of water and propylene glycol, to create vapor that is inhaled.
Many who use the product are actually doing so in an attempt to quit smoking.
Because of the product's relative newness, doctors and scientists have not been able to prove definitively if e-cigarette vapor has adverse human health effects similar to secondhand smoke. Scientific evidence regarding the human health effects of e-cigarettes is limited at this time, both for the user and the persons considered "secondhand."
I don't believe e-cigarettes have a place in the county smoking ordinance because drawing a conclusion based on the comparison of secondhand smoke to e-cigarette vapor is a very long stretch at this time.
The Board of Health is using an Eau Claire City Ordinance banning e-cigarettes as a template for review. The Eau Claire City Council passed a partial ban on e-cigarettes in July 2014. The vote passed 9-1.
Maybe I'm just that one council member that couldn't be persuaded, but until more research is done over a period of time, I cannot say I would vote in favor of the ordinance.
Eau Claire city council member Kathy Mitchell admitted that the ban is "a little bit of a conservative approach." I tend to agree.