When I walked into the "Thank You for Vaping" event at Manhattan's Museum of Sex last night, the room was cloudy with smoke as if I'd time-warped back to a s cocktail party on Madison Avenue.
But instead of the stench of burning tobacco clogging the air, it was the aromatic scent of a room packed with people vaping flavored e-liquids to protest New York City's electronic cigarette ban. The city's strict e-cigarette restrictions, one of Mayor Michael Bloomberg's final acts before leaving office last fall, lump vaping in with smoking traditional cigarettes, and outlaw the use e-cigs in public places like bars or parks.
Or sex museums. The law passed in December and goes into effect throughout the city today, right on the heels of the Food and Drug Administration's proposed regulations to further restrict the sale and use of the digital cigs. Staring the legal crackdown in the face, the zealous vape community and its booming, moneyed industry is braced for a fight. Bill Godshall, a long-time public health advocate who spent years fighting for anti-smoking laws, told people at the event to try to prevent federal regulations by contacting their representative and telling him or her, "don't let the FDA take away these products that are saving my life.
Godshall is in the camp of e-cig advocates that strongly believe the tobacco-free nicotine products are healthy alternative to smoking butts, and that cracking down on the industry would be doing a disservice to the public. When Godshall asked the crowded room, "How many people here have quit smoking from vaping? But he told me later that he's talked to thousands of vapers who say they're living a healthier life thanks to the devices.
Until there's more conclusive scientific research on the health effects, anecdotal evidence and public image is largely driving the conversation—and the policy-making. Advocates are fighting against the onset of anti-vaping laws and the organizations lobbying lawmakers to pass them, specifically everyone's favorite lucrative corporate villain: Big Tobacco. At issue is the concern that proposed federal regulations—which restrict the sale of electronic cigarettes to minors, require warning and ingredient labels on products and mandate that e-cigarette manufacturers get FDA approval—will wind up squashing nascent small vape businesses in favor of the products made by big tobacco companies, which can spare the time and money to go through the approval process.
