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Vaporizers in the city of Hayward will be regulated in the same vein as traditional tobacco products.

Hayward passes tighter regulations on ‘tobacco’ products

June 26, 2014

The Hayward City Council voted Tuesday night on multiple ordinances and resolutions that will tighten regulations on electronic cigarette, flavored tobacco, and vaporizer merchants within the city.

Aimed at combating the sale of electronic cigarettes and the slew of new products on the market that are primarily heated rather than burned to the city’s youth, the council voted to amend the definition of ‘smoke’, ‘smoking’, and ‘tobacco’, bringing the use, sale, and distribution of vaporizers and the like on par with local, state, and federal restrictions on tobacco cigarettes, such as Marlboro or Camel.

The city will be instituting a tobacco retailer license, which any business smaller than 10,000 square feet and selling tobacco products will be required to have in order to operate. The fee for the license, which comes with at least a once a year on site city inspection of the business, will be $400.

City officials stressed that these regulations will bring Hayward businesses in compliance with state and local laws or face a fine. The first time offense for a violation of such provisions, including selling to youths, would come with a price tag of $1,500.

The vote came as a conclusion to a long debate about the effects of e-cigarettes and vaporizers on children wanting to “look cool.”

With flavors like ‘watermelon’ and ‘chocolate,’ speaker Serena Chen of American Lung Association was wary that the targeting of middle and high school students was the ultimate aim of such flavors.

Jim Root of the California Vapor Association, who identified himself as representing vapor retailers, had a different explanation. “There is a common thread in the legislation that [says] flavors are targeted towards children…” Root said, “…that’s actually misinformation…they are actually developed by demand from the adults…even flavors like cotton candy or gummy bear.”

Root rebuked the idea that vaporizers belonged in the same regulatory category as cigarettes. “[These products] are completely different from cigarettes. We are also in favor of an age restriction. But we need a category of our own and not lumped in with cigarettes.”

Councilmember Francisco Zermeño had an addendum to the entire tobacco regulation debate. “We all know that we are the second most unhealthy city in Alameda County. We are regulating tobacco, we are regulating alcohol… are we doing anything to stop childhood obesity?”

Other councilmembers in favor of e-cigarettes found troubling the lack of a ruling from the federal Food and Drug Administration on whether vapor from the electronic devices are actually harmful.

Two members of the public cited a peer reviewed academic study from University of California, San Francisco that stated vaporizers are emitting more than just ‘harmless vaporizer water.’ The study found the regulations around the making of the nicotine cartridges are lax and each company’s production ‘vary,’ even that some middle and high school students that have tried vaporizers never have tried traditional cigarettes. The study also found that some of the vaporized substances contain such chemicals as formaldehyde, putting the smoker and second hand smokers of vaporizers at risk for ill health effects.

In 2002, the City of Berkeley instituted many regulations that Hayward adopted last Tuesday night with significant results. Over the past years Berkeley has been able to thwart the selling of tobacco to minors down to an insignificant margin of their youth population. Hayward City Council hopes to follow suit.

Tuesday’s vote means the city of Hayward looks at vaporizers with the same eye as cigarettes. An additional ordinance will halt any new hookah lounges within city limits and it will soon be illegal to sell single ‘mini cigars’ or “swishers” individually; packs of 3-5 “swishers” costing no less than $5 will only be permitted.

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