By Daniel Larios
Staff Writer

September 25, 2014 – Santa Monica on Tuesday joined Los Angeles, Beverly Hills and Long Beach in regulating electronic cigarettes – also known as e-cigarettes and vaping machines – within its city limits.

The Santa Monica City Council voted unanimously to adopt an ordinance that would treat e-cigarettes the same as traditional cigarettes when it comes to the city’s anti-smoking laws, prohibiting their use where smoking is banned.

Councilmember Gleam Davis made the motion to adopt the ordinance on first reading and was seconded by Councilmember Tony Vasquez.

Twelve speakers testified during the public comment section, all of them in support of the anti-vaping ordinance.

“I can’t remember the last time we had a staff report that everybody got up and spoke in favor of,” joked Councilmember Ted Winterer.

Supporters of the ordinance included residents, anti-smoking activists and doctors.

“The Food and Drug Administration will eventually be regulating electronic cigarettes, but as far as we know, the FDA has not indicated an interest in regulating where electronic cigarettes can be used,” said Tricia Roth, a 13-year Santa Monica resident and pediatrician.

“So this ordinance is very much needed, and there is no clear indication yet that the smoke from e-cigarettes is safe,” Roth said.

Some speakers were skeptical of the claim that vaping helped smokers quit.

“When the idea of this ordinance was introduced, several people spoke to the city council who have said that they have given up smoking regular cigarettes as a result of using electronic cigarettes,” said Ricardo Torres, Assistant Project Director of Safe Smoke-free Air for Everyone.

“But electronic cigarettes still keep people addicted to nicotine,” Torres said. “In addition, the technology of electronic cigarettes keeps changing, and it makes it more difficult to study them to determine if they are safe.”

Resident Willow Evans used her time during public comment to talk about her experience around e-cigarettes.

“The other night I thought I would be a guinea pig and actually sit there while somebody was smoking an e-cigarette and see what that was doing,” said Evans.
“Afterwards, my eyes were just killing me into the next day, and my throat was so raw,” she said.  “It took days for it to dissipate.”

In crafting the ordinance, City staff’s main source of information was an analysis of scientific studies on e-cigarettes called “E-Cigarettes: A Scientific Review.”

Authored by researchers at the University of California San Francisco and published in the American Heart Association’s journal “Circulation,” the study is “the first comprehensive assessment of peer-reviewed published research on the subject.”

Taking into account 84 scientific studies, the analysis questions the claim that vaping helps smokers quit.

“I would imagine that the more studies are done, the more dangerous we’ll find e-cigarettes to be,” said Jerry Rubin, a longtime community activist.  “So let’s get ahead of the curb here.”

Councilmember Bob Holbrook, who has been a pharmacist for 50 years, took time to urge people to quit smoking.

“It’s incredible that nicotine is considered either the number one or two most addictive drug in the world that they know of,” Holbrook said.  “It’s either nicotine or heroin, one or the other. 

“Please don’t be fooled into thinking that there is anything about nicotine that is worth while,” he added. “Break the habit, please do it to protect your health and eventually the health of others.”

The City of Los Angeles passed a similar ordinance in March, that exempts vaping lounges from the indoor workplace ban on smoking.

Similar to LA’s law, Santa Monica’s ordinance would exempt two “vaping” lounges that have proper licenses -- Fix Vapor at 2909 Main Street and Vapor Delight at 1855 Lincoln Boulevard.

The cities of Long Beach and Beverly Hills also have passed ordinances regulating vaping.  However, those ordinances do not have “vaping” lounge exemptions.