San Francisco on Tuesday banned the sale and manufacture of electronic cigarettes to become the first major city in the United States to effectively put the ban.
The move comes amid growing concerns over a sharp rise in vaping among youths.
The city's legislative assembly unanimously approved aregulation suspending the sale of e-cigarette products in shops or that lack approval by federal health authorities. No such approvals presently exist.
Backers said the ban was necessary due to the "significant public health consequences" of a "dramatic surge" in e-cigarette use among teenagers.
But the move led to a prompt backfire from critics who say it could drive one-time smokers back to conventional cigarettes.
The rise in popularity of e-cigarettes, battery-powered devices alarmed the United States health authorities that enable users to inhale addictive nicotine liquids that are oftentimes fruit flavored.
The possible health effects of vaping, including concerns it could stunt adolescent development, remain for the most part unknown, in part since the practice is so new.
In 2018, the number of young Americans using e-cigarettes grew by 1.5 million, with about 3.6 million high and middle school students using vaping products.
San Francisco is the abode to market-leading e-cigarette maker Juul. City Attorney Dennis Herrera, who co-sponsored the ban, said it closed a loophole that the federal U.S. Food and Drug Administration should have tackled long ago.
“E-cigarettes are a product that, by law, are not allowed on the market without FDA review," he said in a statement after the second and final vote to implement the ban. "For some reason, the FDA has so far refused to follow the law. If the federal government is not going to act, San Francisco will."
The mayor of San Francisco, London Breed has 10 days to sign the legislation, which she has said she will do, with the ban expected to take effect seven months later. "We need to take action to protect the health of San Francisco's youth and prevent the next generation of San Franciscans from becoming addicted to these products," Breed said in a statement Tuesday ahead of the vote.
She added that e-cigarette companies were "targeting our kids in their advertising and getting them hooked on addictive nicotine products." But critics say the legislation will make it difficult for people seeking alternatives to regular cigarettes. E-cigarettes do not incorporate the cancer-causing products found in tobacco.
According to an editorial in the Los Angeles Times, regular cigarettes were still for sale in San Francisco. It argued that "it's bad public health policy to come down harder on the lesser of two tobacco evils."
In a statement, Juul, following the vote that the ban would "drive former adult smokers who successfully switched to vapor products back to deadly cigarettes, deny the opportunity to switch for current adult smokers, and create a thriving black market."
Instead, the manufacturer called for stern regulation and enforcement as well as proof-of-age identification.
The San Francisco ordinance text said that the exposure to nicotine during adolescence "can harm the developing brain" and "can also increase the risk for future addiction to other drugs."
For each violation by vendors, it would introduce fines of up to $1,000.
Contrary to the e-cigarette ban that is in effect in Singapore, the San Francisco legislation does not curtail the use of vaping products but only sales, manufacturing, and distribution.
By Sowmya Sangam
