On Feb. 5, Oregon’s Human Services Committee heard House Bill 4115. The bill, submitted by Representative Phil Barnhart, amends laws that concern minors use of tobacco and vapor products, as well as where vapor-smokers can smoke in public places.
Testimony was given at the Human Services Committee hearing, much of which was from vapor store owners, according to Barnhart. Barnhart hopes that the bill will ban e-cigarette smoking in established non-smoking areas as well as prevent the sale of them to minors.
“The longer we wait to adopt this law, the more teen addicts there will be and the more child, teen and adult victims there will be of second hand e-cigarette smoke,” wrote Barnhart in a letter to The Register-Guard.
Currently the bill is with the House Committee on Human Services and Housing, although the committee’s last meeting was cancelled on Feb. 7.
When heard by the Human Services Committee, testimony was given, much of which was from vapor store owners, according to Barnhart. He became involved with e-cigarette legislation after witnessing a stranger smoke an e-cigarette beside him in the Eugene airport.
“I was shocked,” Barnhart said. “Airports are non-smoking areas. People are there because they have to be.” Barnhart first brought up the bill as a concept in January.
“The longer we wait to adopt this law, the more teen addicts there will be and the more child, teen and adult victims there will be of second hand e-cigarette smoke,” wrote Barnhart in a legislative report.
The main complications arose in regards to the definitions and enforcement. Eventually the bill restricted the use of e-cigarettes in non-smoking areas whether or not they contain nicotine to reduce enforcement issues.
Currently, the bill is dead, although, according to Barnhart, the bill “will certainly be reintroduced in 2015.”
“We got a lot of support,” Barnhart said. “(Many people) are worried about addicting another generation to nicotine.”
A number of counties in Oregon already outlaw the sale of e-cigarettes to minors and the smoking of them in public areas including Benton, Clatsop, Deschutes, Hood River and Umatilla Counties.
The UO has been a tobacco free campus since 2012 and is the first school in the PAC-12 to make the change. “The campus has now been smoke tobacco free for 18 months and it’s been going well,” Health Promotion Specialist Renee Mulligan said. “Most people seem to appreciate and respect the policy.”
“We are still working on enforcement and reducing cigarette butt litter around the perimeter of campus,” Mulligan said.
The Health Center provides nicotine replacement therapy for students. This free program provides these students with either the patch or gum. “We have approximately 40 students per term,” Mulligan said.
“There is currently no evidence that e-cigarettes can help people quit smoking … E-cigarettes are not regulated and therefore have been found to vary greatly in the amount of Nicotine released from each cartridge,” Mulligan said.
In December, e-cigarettes were included in bans on smoking in public places in New York by former Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Chicago has also adopted similar resolutions.