Is Puffing E-Cigarettes in Adult-Only Places a Happy Medium?

Thad Mamey fondly remembers the early days of electronic cigarettes: The puzzled stares. Lighting up indoors. The utter lack of smoke. The difference between his puff of vapor and other smokers plumes.

He's smoked tobacco cigarettes for 15 years but the mechanical nicotine stick is a far less harmful alternative, making it his favorite choice.

As it turns out, Pierce County might not see the same distinction between cigarettes that smoke and those that fog.

Like many other municipalities across the country, the Pierce County Health Department is taking action on electronic cigarettes but adopting a fair, enforceable regulation in cities like Bonney Lake and Sumner is as foggy as the vapor smoke released.

Kirsten Frandsen, Health Department prevention specialist, said that while they intend to not regulate individual choices, increased smoking has gone down and electronic cigarettes look like and will increase social acceptability and safety.

Electronic cigarettes are battery-powered devices. Users inhale a specific dosage of nicotine or non-nicotine vapor. Smoking an e-cig is known as vaping.The sensation is similar to a tobacco cigarette because it delivers nicotine to the user, minus cancer-causing ingredients related to cigarette smoke.

But it does not produce smoke.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has yet to regulate it. Questions remain about its health effects and the effects of the second hand vapor which smell like dry ice from a Halloween haunted house.

The Pierce County Board of Health faces the same problem but nevertheless is expected to adopt a new electronic cigarette regulation on June 1, shielding their decision-making course on Wednesday.

In its current form, regulations would limit electronic cigarettes to adult-only places like bars. The e-cigs would be banned from restaurants and other areas where the age range varies.

The King County Health Department on Jan. 15 decided to regulate e-cigs in the same way as tobacco. Spokane County officials adopted a resolution urging its local jurisdictions to adopt e-cigarette regulations.

While the use of e-cigarettes is less damaging to the body — and because it was invented in China in 2003 — there has not been enough proof that shows the long-term side effects of vaping.

Despite comments in a recent meeting on Monday by mostly anti-cigarette smokers critics may have to deal with vaping in bars or other locales where minors are not allowed. Board members reached the consensus there is not enough proven data to regulate electronic cigarettes the same as tobacco products.

"The position or point is we don't have enough proof one way or the other," said Board of Health member Rick Talbert. "We need language that would ban it from minors and not address the (other) issues until more evidence comes through.”

The TPC Health Department and a panel of experts that included Frandsen recommended an identical prohibition of e-cigarettes to the 2005 ban of tobacco products at Monday's meeting. It outraged more than 25 users on Monday including Mark Coy who said regulations should be based on facts.

"Facts should be the binding arbitration," Coy said.

Conversely, a handful of critics during the Board of Health's agenda meeting believed the novelty movement have special appeal to kids.

"I have no idea if they (e-cigs) are safe for me or my children to inhale in public," said Steilacoom resident Jerome Wahl. "I advocate for my children."

The FDA has not issued any formal guidance on electronic cigarettes according to the Electronic Cigarette Association.

"It would be much easier if the FDA was doing its job by saying yes it's great or no it's not," said board member Pat Johnson.

Pierce County Councilman and board member Dick Muri said it's a more preferable fad than smoking tobacco products but there is no quality control coming from the FDA.

"I'd be tickled pink to see people vaping than smoking," Muri said. "But I want to see it prohibited from children."

Mamey said people should have the ability to have a smoke-free opportunity, adding th proposed regulation is demonizing nicotine.

"There's not reason to include it in the smoke ban," he said.