Previously: The Clark County Board of Health asked public health staff to prepare an ordinance prohibiting the use of electronic cigarettes in public places and places of employment where cigarette use is banned.
What’s new: About 100 people attended the board’s public hearing Wednesday on the proposed ordinance. The board made an amendment that would allow customers to sample devices and liquid nicotine at specialty vape shops.
What’s next: The board will take public comment on the revised ordinance, and potentially take a vote, during a special meeting at 9 a.m. April 30.
The Clark County Board of Health is poised to pass an ordinance restricting the use of electronic cigarettes and other vaping devices but made one concession after listening to more than an hour of public testimony on the issue.
Previously: The Clark County Board of Health asked public health staff to prepare an ordinance prohibiting the use of electronic cigarettes in public places and places of employment where cigarette use is banned.
What's new: About 100 people attended the board's public hearing Wednesday on the proposed ordinance. The board made an amendment that would allow customers to sample devices and liquid nicotine at specialty vape shops.
What's next: The board will take public comment on the revised ordinance, and potentially take a vote, during a special meeting at 9 a.m. April 30.
The proposed ordinance would prohibit the use of “inhalant delivery systems,” such as electronic cigarettes and other electronic vaping devices, in all public places and places of employment where cigarette use is banned. After hearing nearly 30 people speak out against the proposal at a meeting Wednesday morning, the board proposed amending the ordinance to allow an exception for speciality vape shops.
The exception was requested by many of the speakers opposed to the ordinance. Customers need to be able to test the electronic devices and sample different liquid nicotine flavors to find what’s right for them, speakers said.
The board of health — which is made up of county Councilors David Madore, Tom Mielke and Jeanne Stewart — passed a motion to make that exception, but only for specialty vape shops and not grocery and convenience stores where the devices may also be sold.
The board will bring the ordinance back for more public comment, and potentially a final vote, at a special meeting at 9 a.m. April 30 at the Public Service Center, 1300 Franklin St.
About 100 people attended Wednesday’s board of health meeting, with 29 people testifying during the public hearing. All but one speaker was opposed to the ordinance. Two members of the county’s Public Health Advisory Board also voiced their support for the ordinance.
Many who spoke against the ordinance shared stories of electronic cigarettes helping them to kick their cigarette addiction and improving their health.
“Cigarettes kill. Vaping saves lives,” said John Tapp of Vancouver, a 25-year smoker who quit nine months ago with the help of vaping devices.
Dr. Alan Melnick, Clark ‘sCounty’s health officer and public health director, cautioned that speakers’ anecdotes were just that — personal experience and opinion. The safety of the devices and their potential health impacts have not been scientifically proven, Melnick said. In addition, the devices have not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for smoking cessation and are not yet regulated by the FDA, he said.
“The jury is out on whether these devices are effective smoking-cessation devices,” Melnick said.
Some speakers urged the board to leave the decision of whether to prohibit vaping to individual business owners, and numerous speakers asked the board to allow sampling in vape shops.
“I need to be able to try a device to make sure that will help me on my path to quit smoking,” said Nathan Oldenburg, 26, of Vancouver, who works at Hawaiian Vapor in Vancouver.
Oldenburg said after the meeting he was happy the board listened to those testifying and is considering the exception for specialty shops.
All three board members spoke in favor of the exception; Mielke and Stewart said they were ready to approve the ordinance with that amendment. Madore asked for a continuance so the amendment could be made before a final vote was cast.
“On the whole, I’m supportive of this ordinance,” Stewart said. “But maybe the sampling prohibition goes too far.”
Madore and Mielke said the board had to weigh the rights of business owners with the rights of the public, who may not want to be exposed to the vapor from electronic devices.
“I’m very reluctant of big brother, the government telling us what to do,” Mielke said. But when what one person does affects others, he said, “you have to protect everybody.”
The ordinance as originally proposed would extend the regulations under the statewide Smoking in Public Places law, formerly the Washington Clean Indoor Air Act, to include devices used to deliver liquid nicotine, or other liquids or solids, in the form of vapor or aerosol to a person inhaling from the device.
While the board’s amendment would allow the exception for vape shops, Melnick was happy with the progress.
“It’s a step forward in having these devices comply with the SIPP law,” he said. “I can live with that.”
