E-cigarette ingredients concern Naperville council
Uncertainty about what's really inside the alternative smoking devices known as e-cigarettes is concerning some Naperville City Council members as they consider new regulations on the devices.
"We don't know what's in these things, really," council member Paul Hinterlong said.
"There is concern about just what substances are in them," council member Judith Brodhead said.
"Some of them are just flavored water," council member Steve Chirico said.
During the first council discussion about potential restrictions on the sale, possession and use of e-cigarettes in Naperville, City Prosecutor Mike DiSanto said almost all e-cigarettes contain nicotine, a substance that can be regulated.
Naperville's proposed ordinance would prohibit people younger than 18 from buying e-cigarettes and from "vaping," which is a term to describe using one of the devices to inhale an odorless water vapor formed from a solution of chemicals. It also would help the city track which retailers are selling e-cigarettes by requiring a $200 yearly license.
"The new ordinance creates a definition of alternative nicotine products, which doesn't include patches and gum and things used to stop smoking," DiSanto said during a liquor commission meeting in February. "It takes these products and requires a license to sell, prohibits from selling to minors, makes it illegal for minors to possess, and expands the Naperville smoke-free act to say e-cigarettes cannot be consumed inside public places or within 15 feet of the door."
While state law already prohibits sales of e-cigarettes to minors and the state Senate is considering a bill that would ban possession by people younger than 18, DiSanto said having a local ordinance could help with enforcement and allow police to issue local tickets instead of citing the violations at the state level.
Another state bill in the works, being sponsored by State Rep. Kathleen Willis of Addison, would prohibit vaping inside all state-owned buildings and add a ban on e-cigarettes to the school code. Willis said this is a step back from her original proposal that would have expanded the Smoke Free Illinois Act of 2007 to include banning use of e-cigarettes indoors in all public places.
"The reason we decided to do that is we're really waiting for the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) to come out with its final rulings" on the potential health risks of e-cigarettes, Willis said.
While many studies say e-cigarettes are harmful, containing chemicals such as formaldehyde, Willis said retailers who sell the devices and smoking materials point to research that says otherwise.
"For every report I showed that it was harmful, they showed me a report that it was harmless," she said.
Willis is working on a final draft of her bill, which likely will be discussed at a hearing of the state House's consumer protection committee the week of March 23.
She said she's also looking to see how many municipalities enact local bans on public, indoor use of e-cigarettes.
At least two council members said they oppose portions of Naperville's proposed regulations.
"To prevent people from using these e-cigarettes in the same way we do with regular cigarettes, I think, right now is too restrictive," Chirico said. "It'd be a very, very difficult thing to regulate and I don't know if we want to regulate it."
Council member Robert Fieseler said the city shouldn't regulate e-cigarettes if officials aren't sure all of them contain illegal or harmful products. That could lead to a person who is smoking an e-cigarette being stopped and detained when he or she might not be doing anything wrong, he said.
"I hate the heavy hand of government coming down on things that are questionably legal," Fieseler said. "We should not pass laws until we know exactly how they're going to be enforced."