What: Clark County Board of Health public hearing on electronic cigarette ordinance.
When: 9 a.m. Thursday.
Where: Public Services Center, 1300 Franklin St., Vancouver.
Clark County isn’t alone in its desire to restrict the use of electronic cigarettes and other vaping devices in public places.
In the last five years, several cities and counties in Washington and Oregon have passed ordinances imposing local regulations on a largely unregulated industry. The reach of those regulations, however, varies from community to community.
Thursday, the Clark County Board of Health will consider an ordinance that 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, with one exception: speciality vape shops.
The Board of Health — which is made up of county Councilors David Madore, Tom Mielke and Jeanne Stewart — proposed the exception after nearly 30 people spoke out against the original proposed ordinance, which would have prohibited the shops from allowing customers to test the electronic devices and sample different liquid nicotine flavors.
The ordinance would, with the one exception, extend the state’s Smoking in Public Places law, which also prohibits smoking within 25 feet of doors and windows, to inhalant delivery systems.
The Grant County Board of Health passed a similar ordinance in September 2010. The ordinance mirrors the Smoking in Public Places law, with an exception for vape shops that prohibit access to minors, and restricts the sale and possession of electronic vapor devices and e-liquid to people 18 and older.
The Clark County Board of Health passed an ordinance in June 2011 that banned the sale of electronic vapor devices to minors.
The Grant County health department initially proposed an ordinance with no exceptions, but, like the Clark County councilors, the board added the exception after hearing from shop owners and customers, said Theresa Adkinson, Grant County Health District spokeswoman.
The exception, however, requires that the shops that allow sampling restrict access to their stores to those 18 and older, Adkinson said.
“We haven’t had anybody complain about us restricting vaping,” she said. The ordinance went into effect Jan. 1.
The Tacoma-Pierce County Board of Health has also passed an e-cigarette ordinance.
In June 2011, the board restricted the sale of e-cigarettes to those 18 and older and limited e-cigarette use to only those public places where minors are lawfully prohibited, such as bars and casinos. The ordinance also allows e-cigarette use in private places of employment and retail outlets that exclusively sell the devices.
The exceptions were added based on community feedback, said Miae Aramori, with the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department.
“The vape shop owners were pretty vocal,” she said.
The health department gets calls “pretty regularly” about electronic cigarettes, Aramori said. Many times the calls are about people using the devices where they shouldn’t be — a bowling alley, for example. Sometimes the calls are more technical, such as whether the convention center can host an event that allows e-liquid sampling (no, it’s a public place), Aramori said.
For the most part, though, Aramori believes people are just unaware of the rules. Education and enforcement have been limited since the department ended its retail compliance program in 2013, she said.
Last month, Multnomah County, Ore., commissioners unanimously voted to prohibit the use of inhalant delivery systems in any workplace where smoking is prohibited — which includes within 10 feet of doors, windows or air intake vents — and restrict minors from purchasing or possessing the devices. The ordinance went into effect April 5.
The commissioners held numerous public meetings on the issue and, like Clark County councilors, heard from speciality vape shop owners and customers pleading for an exception. That board, however, did not grant an exception.
The King County Board of Health passed an ordinance in December 2010 that prohibits the sale of electronic smoking devices or liquid nicotine to minors and lumps use of the devices under the Smoking in Indoor Places law. And last May, the Pasco City Council banned the devices in public places and places of employment; restricted their use within 25 feet of park playgrounds, shelters and pools; and prohibited their sale, purchase and possession by minors.
Neither King County nor Pasco have exceptions for specialty vape shops.
