Chandler City, Arizona May Consider E-Cig Ban

Chandler could become the latest Arizona city to ban the use of electronic cigarettes in public places.

A City Council subcommittee was urged to amend the ordinance that bans smoking tobacco in public places to include e-cigarettes, or “vaporizers,” battery-powered devices that release vapor containing nicotine.

Members of the Mesa-based group Arizonans Concerned About Smoking told subcommittee members at a Jan. 28 meeting the ordinance should be amended because little is known about the effects of e-cigarettes.

“Until we know what the science is, it’s better to be proactive and preventative. We really don’t know what the long-term effects of these are,” said Philip Carpenter, the group’s executive director, after the meeting.

Another concern, he said, is that allowing e-cigarettes in public places, including restaurants, shopping malls or offices, where cigarette smoking now largely is prohibited, will begin normalizing public smoking again.

“You see more and more people using these e-cigarettes, they glamorize it, you see it in advertising on TV. It just makes the whole thing look attractive,” said Carpenter, adding that youths in particular may be influenced.

“If you do this, it sets a consistent citywide standard for all workplaces so that expectations for managers, employees, clients, visitors, students and residents are crystal clear,” he told the subcommittee.

Last year, Tempe added e-cigarettes to its local smoking ban. So far, no other Valley city has joined Tempe, though the town of Guadalupe also has passed a ban, Carpenter said. Some municipalities, like Gilbert, have banned them in city buildings only.

Carpenter said the group intends to keep lobbying cities to seek changes, hoping to follow the same path that led to traditional smoking bans now in place across much of Arizona.

Chandler Councilman Rick Heumann said he intends to bring a proposal before the City Council in the coming months after the issue is researched by the city Attorney’s Office. He said Chandler shouldn’t wait to see if the Legislature will impose a statewide ban.

“I would love to see the Legislature do something, but that’s not going to happen. We should lead by example,” he said, describing the matter as a local health issue.

The state has banned the sale of e-cigarettes to minors.

Councilman Jack Sellers suggested the city could see resistance from the bar and restaurant industry as was the case during the push to ban traditional smoking. Many of those businesses argued at the time that smoking laws should be uniform across cities to allow for an even playing field.

Heumann, however, said the reality is that once smoking was banned, some bars and restaurants saw an uptick in business from customers who preferred a smoke-free environment.

E-cigarettes have been touted as a less-harmful alternative to help smokers wean themselves off the harmful effects of tobacco in traditional cigarettes.

Supporters of e-cigarettes say the effort to ban them is misguided and not based on any scientific findings.