Chicago City ban on indoor e-cigarette use goes into effect

Starting Tuesday, Chicagoans will have to do their vaping outside as a ban on electronic cigarettes in indoor public places takes effect.

The new rule, which the City Council passed in January at Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s urging, prohibits people from using e-cigarettes in restaurants, bars and most other indoor public places in the city. The measure also requires retailers to sell e-cigarettes from behind the counter so it’s harder for minors to get their hands on them.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel backed the measure, and has been pushing restrictions on all forms of cigarette smoking – including boosting the cigarette tax and putting a prohibition on selling flavored tobacco products within a 500 feet of a school.

“It’s been a long line of activities to protect our kids from both tobacco products, and more importantly, from the tobacco companies seeing [kids] as part of their bottom line. And they’re not,” Emanuel told WBEZ.

Opponents – including some aldermen – say e-cigarettes are safer than regular tobacco-burning cigarettes, and can actually help people quit.

The Food and Drug Administration issued a proposal last week that would extend the agency’s tobacco authority to cover e-cigarette products, which would restrict companies from giving out free samples. It would also impose minimum-age and identification restrictions on e-cigarettes and keep them out of vending machines (unless they’re in a facility that never admits kids) but it stopped short of regulating advertising.The proposed rule is now under a public comment period.

Dr. Bechara Choucair, Commissioner of Chicago’s Department of Public Health, said the proposal is a good first step–and a step in the right direction–but the city’s ordinance goes even farther.

Choucair said if anyone sees people smoking e-cigarettes in Chicago where they’re not supposed to, they can call 311 to file a complaint.

Agencies/Canadajorunal