Today, the Houston City Council voted to add e-cigarettes to the city’s smoking in public places ordinance, which would prohibit their use indoors in public.
“The American Lung Association applauds the Houston City Council for approving this important ordinance, which helps address the youth e-cigarette epidemic and protects the rights of workers and individuals to breathe smokefree air indoors,” said Charlie Gagen, Advocacy Director of the American Lung Association in Texas.
“This ordinance will help reduce exposure to e-cigarette emissions and reduce the number of places where Houston teenagers are exposed to e-cigarettes. We encourage the city to robustly enforce the ordinance. A key strategy for addressing youth and adult use of e-cigarettes is to eliminate the use of them in public spaces and workplaces. With their toxic mix of chemicals, evidence increasingly shows that the inhalation of e-cigarettes aerosol contains harmful chemicals that can cause irreversible lung damage and lung diseases, and their secondhand emissions contain multiple chemicals linked to lung disease.
“Especially in light of the youth vaping epidemic, with 1 in 4 teens in Texas having at least tried e-cigarettes, the Lung Association remains deeply concerned about the impact of vaping across the country. We warn that no one should use e-cigarettes because they can cause irreversible lung damage and lung disease.”
“As Texas does not have a statewide law on smoking in public places, more than 100 cities across the state have adopted a smokefree indoor air ordinances, and we encourage others to include e-cigarettes. We again call on the state to cover all Texans with a statewide smokefree indoor air law.”