Rally to Fight L.A. E-Cig Ban

A recently updated Call to Action on CASAA’s website is urging vapers to help fight the recently-passed ordinance that bans vaping in public areas of Los Angeles.

In addition to contacting Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti to voice opposition to the new ordinance, vapers are also encouraged to attend a “Save Vape LA” rally to be held Saturday, March 8 in Pershing Square.

Keynote speakers at the rally will include Herbert Gilbert, inventor of the first electronic cigarette in 1963, as well as Empire Brands electronic cigarette CEO John Cameron, and Smoke Free Alternatives Trade Association President Phillip Daman.

A media wall will also be constructed to allow attendees to provide testimony of how vaping has changed their lives.

More details are available from CASAA at the link below.

IMPORTANT Updated Call to Action for Los Angeles! Attend Rally Saturday, March 8th and Contact Mayor to Voice Your Opposition | CASAA.

Rally to Fight L.A. E-Cig Ban

Los Angeles Passes Ban

As expected, a ban on electronic cigarettes wherever smoking is prohibited was passed Tuesday by the Los Angeles City Council. The ban will take effect in April.

“I will not support anything — anything — that might attract one new smoker.”

–Herb Wesson, City Council President

The vote was unanimous, and the new ordinance will be signed by Mayor Eric Garcetti, according to a spokesman from the mayor’s office.

An amendment which allows the use of electronic cigarettes in “vaping lounges” was poassed along with the ordinance, though a measure which would have allowed vaping in bars was defeated 8-6.

Los Angeles bans e-cigarettes in smoke-free areas | Represent! | 89.3 KPCC.

Los Angeles Passes Ban

Video: L.A. Moves Closer to a Ban

The Los Angeles city council moved a step closer Monday to banning the use of e-cigarettes in public areas where smoking is prohibited.

“We were surprised at how misinformed the committee was,” he told us. “They were using statements like lighting up, smoking – improper terms.”

–Brandon O’Connell, VapeDay

The matter has now moved out of committee, with a decision made to push forward toward amending smoking legislation to include electronic cigarettes, despite any evidence of health risks. Instead, the council is planning to ban the use of the devices because they look like smoking, according to City Attorney Mike Feuer, who says the ban should remain in place even if it can proven that vaping has no negative health effects whatsoever. “Even if it were determined later on that the emissions from e-cigarettes aren’t dangerous to a bystander in an outside environment, the existence of devices like this… in public places does threaten to renormalize the behavior of smoking.”

Unlike other cities, though, vaping will still be allowed in some shared spaces. LA Weekly reports that an amendment was agreed upon Monday evening which would allow the use of electronic cigarettes in vaping lounges.

L.A. City Council Takes Up Controversial E-Cigarette Ban | KTLA 5.

Video: L.A. Moves Closer to a Ban

Big Cities Lead in E-Cig Superstition

In another pro-ecig article from Forbes, Dr. Gilbert Ross of the American Council on Science and Health looks at how the superstitious fear of electronic cigarettes is being promoted by America’s big cities.

“Making e-cigs inaccessible for desperate smokers by inane restrictions will send this message: “Keep on smoking.” To those who say, “We just don’t know what might happen,” I respond, we sure do know what happens with the real ones: almost half a million dead American smokers every year.”

Ross is amazed that these places, where daily life is so completely based on technology and embracing the new, seem to be where all the baseless opposition to e-cigarettes is coming from. With Los Angeles, Chicago and New York all leading the charge to ban e-cigarettes, treating them exactly the same as tobacco, it is only in places like Wisconsin that we see governments making an effort to treat electronic cigarettes as what they are: a new product that has next to nothing in common with traditional cigarettes.

Ross takes oin all the arguments these cities have made: from claims that bans protect children, to the idea that electronic cigarettes are toxic, and counters them with facts and common sense, making the point that discouraging smokers from switching to electronic cigarettes could come at the cost of a great many deaths caused by smoking tobacco.

Big U.S. Cities Foment Baseless, Superstitious Fear Of Electronic Cigarettes | Forbes

Big Cities Lead in E-Cig Superstition

LA Times Urges City Council Not To Overreact

LA Times Urges City Council Not To Overreact