Jump to full article: Rhinoceros Times (Greensboro, NC), 2010-02-04
Author: Scott D. Yost County Editor
Intro: Guilford County may have banned smoking from area bars and restaurants at the first of the year, but technology is giving county health officials and other anti-smoking advocates fits. "E-cigs" - also known as "electronic cigarettes" - are becoming the nicotine dispenser of choice now that smoking traditional cigarettes has been declared illegal in most public buildings.
According to Guilford County Tobacco Prevention Coordinator Mary Gillett, the product can cause confusion when bar patrons light up their electronic cigarettes because, while it's not illegal to do so, anti-smokers at bars can get upset with the fact that people are apparently smoking.
Gillett said bar owners can order patrons to put them out - or, rather, turn them off.
"They can do it the same way they can say, 'No shoes, no service,'" she said.
Gillette said that, since the product is relatively new, there are a great deal of questions about the safety of the device and how it compares with cigarettes. . . .
The legislation that banned smoking in most public buildings starting at the first of this year defines "smoking" as, "The use or possession of a lighted cigarette, lighted cigar, lighted pipe, or any other lighted tobacco product."
. . .
Guilford County Sheriff BJ Barnes said the law is the law, and he added that, since using electronic cigarettes isn't illegal, it must be legal.
"The law is not supposed to be subjective," Barnes said.
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