E-cig shops say state regulation could backfire

Health concerns over e-cigarettes are gaining steam. Based on new research, California lawmakers are looking at regulating them just like cigarettes. Local shops are saying not so fast and think the regulations could backfire. People who use e-cigarettes, also known as vaping, said they’re 99 percent safer than cigarettes and haven’t been known to cause any disease. But new information from the state, strongly suggests the opposite.

It’s the 2014 Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year: Vape. You charge it, fill it with liquid nicotine and hit the button. Vapers said it’s a thriving industry with little regulation. But that could change, as California lawmakers announced a new bill calling for a ban on e-cigarettes in bars, hospitals, restaurants and other workplaces. William Chao said he got into vaping to help friends quit smoking.

“Got her to try vaping and made her spend a little more money to get into and she actually got into it and quit smoking and then quit vaping then, even afterwards,” Chao said.

People who work in the industry said they’d rather vape an e-cigarette because they know exactly what’s in the liquid they’re vaping. But new research by the California Department of Public Health shows e-cigarettes aren’t harmless and emit cancer causing chemicals.

“You know there is a misnomer that e-cigarettes omit water just water vapor. That’s not true, they actually omit aerosol that contains particulate matter and often this particulate matter in studies contains carcinogens,” said Timothy Gibbs with the American Cancer Society.

So far, Santa Cruz and Watsonville are the only cities on the Central Coast lumping e-cigs under the same rules as nicotine cigarettes. Local shops said giving e-cigs and cigarettes equal treatment, could hurt small businesses giving smokers another option.

“Would you rather people buy cigarettes and give it to the big company that does nothing with it? Or would you rather give it to the small people that are trying to create businesses, trying to create the small guys again,” Chao said.

California health managers said e-cigarettes are a health threat, especially to children and should be regulated like tobacco products. But e-cigarette makers claim their products are far safer than tobacco.