Houston County, MN Sets E-Cig Policy
In Houston County, e-cigarettes will now be treated as regular cigarettes, so people won’t be allowed to smoke them in any place where tobacco use is now banned. Those younger than 18 won’t be able to buy them.
The Houston County Board on Tuesday unanimously passed two ordinances that will go into effect as soon as they are legally published.
They first heard from several citizens or public health officials who all called for passage.
Mary Marchel, director of the county public health, said the new e-cigarettes are devices where a liquid containing nicotine is put in and the user inhales vapor coming from it. It doesn’t leave smoke in the air but only vapor.
But Marchel said they are still dangerous because they can lead to nicotine addiction and use of regular tobacco as well as undermining the “de-normalization” of cigarettes that has been going on for for many years, leading to a major reduction in smoking over the past 50 years.
The devices are not marketed as a way to help smokers quit. “In fact, the industry blocked efforts by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) to have them regulated as a medical device,” she said. There have been no clinical trials of their reliability of safety.
Finally, the number of middle and high school students using e-cigarettes has more than doubled in the past few years; the younger teens are when they start using nicotine, the higher the chance they will become addicted, Marchel said.
“If it looks like a cigarette, if it smokes or vapes like a cigarette and it addicts like a cigarette, then it should be regulated like a cigarette,” she said
Houston County Chief Deputy Scott Yeiter also supported the measures. He said it’s possible to put illegal drugs, such as methamphetamine, into them to smoke the meth. “We do see a need to treat them the same as tobacco products,” he said.