The Los Angeles City Council approved of a new ban on electronic cigarettes, commonly referred to as "vaping" on Tuesday.
The ban would prevent the use of e-cigarettes in night clubs, restaurants, bars and other public places in the city, according to Reuters.
Tony Arranaga, spokesman for Councilman Mitch O'Farrell, said the ban will take effect in 30 days if it is signed into law by Mayor Eric Garcetti, Reuters reported. Los Angeles would then join other major cities, such as New York and Chicago, that restrict the use of e-cigarettes. E-cigarettes are battery-powered cartridges filled with nicotine liquid that create an inhalable vapor when heated.
According to the Los Angeles Times, lawmakers voted to continue to let people use e-cigarettes in vaping lounges, but were able to defeat a push by the e-cigarette industry to let vaping continue in 21-and-over establishments, which include nightclubs and bars.
During the debate, lawmakers shared their experiences with tobacco and the dangers of its use, the Los Angeles Times reported. O'Farrell talked about how unhappy he was when he was breathing secondhand smoke when he was a waiter in the early 1990s. Councilman Joe Buscaino spoke of a relative who, after years of smoking, decided to use e-cigarettes. Council president Herb Wesson talked about his decades-long addiction to cigarettes, saying it was a habit that would definitely kill him one day, and that he started smoking because he wanted to be cool.
"When you're fifteen, you want to be cool," Wesson said. "And I will not support anything -anything- that might attract one new smoker."
Those who argue against e-cigarettes say the use of the device would make smoking socially acceptable after years of campaigns against smoking, the Los Angeles Times reported. Dr. Jonathan Fielding, head of the Los Angeles County Public Health Department, said people could get addicted to nicotine in e-cigarettes, which could lead to them using tobacco.
"We don't want to risk e-cigarettes undermining a half-century of successful tobacco control," Fielding said.
Buscaino, who proposed the amendment to allow the use of the device in bars and nightclubs, said e-cigarettes do not present the same danger as tobacco.
"And I don't think they should be regulated exactly the same way," Buscaino said.
