E-cig ban ‘ludicrous’

A public health expert has called San Francisco’s plan to ban e-cigarettes but not tobacco products “ludicrous,” according to an NBC News report.

“We’re taking the risk of addiction among kids,” said Kenneth Warner, a professor emeritus at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, “and comparing that with the immediate danger of smoking-related illness and death in smokers who have not been able to quit otherwise and who might be able to quit with vaping.”

Warner cited a New England Journal of Medicine study from January 2019 that found among smokers in a smoking cessation clinic trying to quit traditional cigarettes, nearly double the number of people—18 percent versus 9.9 percent—who used vaping over nicotine-replacement products such as gum or patches were able to quit.

“If the board of supervisors were interested in public health, they would prohibit the sale of cigarettes in San Francisco,” said Warner. “That’s a far higher priority than banning vaping from a public health point of view. There really is an irony that now you can buy your marijuana and your cigarettes, but you won’t be able to get vaping products, which are certainly far less dangerous than cigarette smoking. It’s ludicrous.”