Friday, December 6, 2013

E-Cigs Cleared for Takeoff at a Number of US Airports

By Jay Galletly

Chesterfield cigarettes ...  ELECTRONIC CIGARE...

Don’t panic if you see a passenger puffing away as you make your way between the gates at Las Vegas’ McCarran Airport.  While traditional tobacco products such as cigarettes, cigars and pipes are forbidden by law at every airport in the US, e-cigarettes currently are not.  While you're  not allowed to use e-cigs on planes, e-cigs are allowed in a number of airports across the country, including Phoenix Sky Harbor, Miami International, Tampa International, Minneapolis St. Paul, and even Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington DC. 

The FDA has not Wade in Yet

As far as the FDA is concerned, e-cigarettes are still not on their radar screen.  Therefore it has been left to the management at airports across the country to decide whether or not to allow e-cigarettes to be smoked on the premises.  This legal grey area has led to a number of different rules at airports. While  some allow e-cigarette smokers to puff away just about anywhere, while others restrict smoking to designated areas.

It’s a Go in Some Airports!

Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Arl...
Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport,
Arlington County, Virginia (near Washington, D. C.)
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Some airports, such as Philadelphia International and LAX forbid smoking of e-cigarettes anywhere on the property, others like New York’s LaGuardia and JFK airports permit e-cigarette us e in some terminals but not in others.   Currently the State of New York does not have any laws in place restricting the use of vaping products indoors, preferring to let individual business owners the freedom of choice to decide whether or not to permit e-cigs.  

According to an article in USA Today, “New York City and Chicago are considering laws to ban e-cigarette use in public spaces, treating the device the same as tobacco cigarettes. If the measure passes in New York that means e-cigarette use will no longer be allowed in any of the airports' public spaces.  The New York Port Authority oversees the airports and bans e-cigarette use in the terminals it operates, but it leases some terminals to airlines and private companies, which can have their own policies on e-cigarette use.”

No FDA Reg’s Yet!

Currently the FDA doesn’t have any regulations on the books restricting e-cigarette use. In fact the entire rationale behind banning cigarettes in restaurants, airports and other public places was 
FDA's War on Electronic Cigarettes
FDA's War on Electronic Cigarettes (Photo credit: lindsay-fox)
to protect non-smokers from the dangers of second hand smoke.  Many public officials are reacting in a knee jerk fashion to recommend that e-cigs be treated like the real McCoy and ban their use in public. Yet even New York City health commissioner, Dr. Thomas A. Farley, admitted in a Forbes magazine interview that he could not say whether or not e-cigarettes were hazardous to the health of those smoking them, let alone whether or not they produce hazardous second hand smoke.  Yet in the next breath, he states, "These things are really exploding around the world. We will have more information in the future," Farley said. "I think the question for the committee today is, do you want to wait?"

Real Scientist get it Right!

But that doesn’t mean that everyone in the scientific community agrees with him.  In fact, Dr. Gilbert Ross of the American Council on Sciences and Health publicly stated that any law restricting the use of e-cigarettes and other vaping devices without due scientific scrutiny are both unnecessary and hyper-regulatory.   "It really will accomplish nothing except to make more former smokers return to actual toxic cigarettes."

For now the rules governing e-cigarette smoking in airports and other public places are arbitrary and highly politicized.  Yet in other countries such as Great Britain vaping is permitted in regulated airp
The FDA Drug Decision Panel
The FDA Drug Decision Panel (Photo credit: DES Daughter)
ort zones, such as Heathrow Terminal 4.  In a survey of 1,000 airline travelers by global travel site Skyscanner, 57 percent of people surveyed responded that they would not object to airports designating “vaping areas” for e-cigarette users.  When you consider that an estimated 1.3 million people in this country are known consumers of e-cigarettes, you would think that politicians would realize that they vote too. 
In this article, I have covered how a lack of FDA rules and regulations has led to a wide array of rule in airports across the US and around the world. Currently many airports in the US both allow and restrict ecigarette usage. Most of the ban usage is not based on any scientific findings, rather they are based on knee jerk or political posturing by trying to lump ecigarettes vapors in with the negative side effects of second hand smoke. If you felt that this article was helpful, share it with a friend. If you have something to add, enter it in the comment section below. Thanks for sharing this time with me. Until next time, enjoy a new way with VIAe.
Jay Galletly is the CEO and one of the founders of VIAe ecigarette company in North Caroline. He is one of the pioneers of the industry and was instrumental in the growth and success of other ecigarette companies before starting VIAe.
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1 comment:

  1. The problem with politicians is that they are only interested in getting their faces on TV. As a rule they don't take the time to consider the facts. It looks to be an up hill battle for e-cig users in this country.

    ReplyDelete