July 15, 2019 – Outlawing e-cigs

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Anchor lead: What are the implications of the new law to ban e-cigarettes in San Francisco? Elizabeth Tracey reports

E-cigarettes will not be sold in San Francisco if a new law takes effect. Michael Blaha, a preventive cardiologist at Johns Hopkins, says at least one at risk group from the devices will likely benefit.

Blaha: The city of San Francisco has chosen to ban the sales of electronic cigarettes to all individuals. And this also covers flavored tobacco products as well as the online sale of electronic cigarettes with their shipment to San Francisco. And I think this is really a good thing from the perspective of signaling that electronic cigarettes are a big problem, particularly when it comes to youth use, use by young people who’ve never used a tobacco product before but perhaps are using electronic cigarettes as their first tobacco product. :29

Blaha says use of e-cigarettes among teenagers is common and growing, so efforts to stem this addiction are needed. He notes that such a ban may also prevent smokers of traditional cigarettes from using the devices in quit attempts. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.