Paramus is considering an indoor ban on electronic cigarettes.
Jump to full article: Hackensack (NJ) Record/Herald News, 2009-09-28
Author: STEPHANIE AKIN The Record STAFF WRITER
Intro: "Smoke in taxis" flashes across a flat-screen television at the unambiguously named Smoking Everywhere kiosks. "Smoke at sporting events. Smoke at the movies. Smoke at the office."
To bring the message home, a salesman at Westfield Garden State Plaza took a drag and blew three perfectly formed rings toward shoppers strolling out of J.C. Penney.
According to the product's marketers, that substance may look like cigarette smoke, but it's as harmless as water vapor. It's almost completely odorless, they say, and it dissipates in seconds.
But some North Jersey health officials aren't convinced.
Buoyed by a recent Federal Drug Administration study that found electronic cigarettes may contain carcinogens and toxic chemicals -- including diethylene glycol, a substance found in antifreeze -- state and local officials have issued warnings about using them or leaving them where they can be reached by children.
Paramus health officials said they are alarmed by reports of people using electronic cigarettes at Westfield Garden State Plaza and are considering a ban on the use of e-cigarettes in indoor public places or work environments, just like regular cigarettes. It would be one of the first bans of its kind in the country.
"The safety of these things cannot be assured," said Paramus Health Department Director John Hopper. "Our concern is the effect to the non-smoking public who may be breathing the vapors of these things -- because they do give off vapors -- in public places." . . .
Darnell White, who owns Smoking Everywhere franchises at the Westfield Garden State Plaza and Palisades Center malls and sells electronic cigarettes online at smokingeverywhere.biz, defended his company, saying it refuses to sell to children under 18 and claiming the product keeps people from smoking traditional cigarettes.
"Anything that gets people away from regular cigarettes is a plus in my book," said White, himself a non-smoker. "At the end of the day, this product has helped hundreds of people to stop smoking." . . .
But smokeless cigarette distributors say the agency has overstepped its authority. Smoking Everywhere sued the FDA in April after the agency seized several of its shipments.
As for Paramus' possible smoking ban, White says he won't let it pass without a fight.
"The name of the company is Smoking Everywhere," he said. "Everywhere means the malls also."
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