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January 30, 2012 in Idaho
Idaho bill would ban e-cigarettes for kids
Rep. Bob Nonini, R-Coeur d’Alene, presents HB 405, banning the sale of e-cigarettes to minors, to the House Health & Welfare Committee, which voted unanimously to pass it; the bill now moves to the full House.
(Full-size photo)
BOISE - Current Idaho law bans tobacco products from being sold to children, but doesn’t cover a new product called “e-cigarettes,” electronic cigarettes that contain no tobacco, but instead allow users to inhale a nicotine-infused mist without creating smoke.
Rep. Bob Nonini, R-Coeur d’Alene, is sponsoring legislation to change that, and his bill was endorsed unanimously on Monday by the Idaho House Health and Welfare Committee, which sent it to the full House with a recommendation that it pass.
Health districts around the state, including the Panhandle Health District in North Idaho, support the move and asked Nonini and co-sponsor Sen. Jim Hammond, R-Coeur d’Alene, to pitch the legislation. The cities of Coeur d’Alene, Post Falls and Hayden already ban e-cigarette sales to minors, as do Spokane County and the cities of Spokane and Spokane Valley.
Nonini said the products contain “large amounts or what could be considered deadly amounts of nicotine.”
Rep. John Rusche, D-Lewiston, a retired physician, said, “There’s no reason to suspect that nicotine delivered by a mist is any different than nicotine delivered via cigarette smoke. … I guess my question is, why are we allowing sales of these at all?”
Nonini, a smoker, said he understood Rusche’s desire on health grounds to not have people smoke at all. “I get that,” he said. “The purpose of this legislation is at least a starting point, try to keep them out of the hands of children.” E-cigarettes are marketed with flavorings, he said, as “an enticement to get children to start smoking.” He called the bill “a first attempt … to regulate the sales of these so they don’t get to minors.”
Lora Whalen, director of the Panhandle Health District, told the committee that e-cigarettes are “battery-powered nicotine delivery devices,” which come in “fun flavors” like bubble gum and light up when a user inhales. Idaho’s health districts unanimously approved a resolution supporting banning their sale to minors, she said.
“Minors should not have access to nicotine,” Whalen told the committee, calling the bill “just common sense.” She said, “Nicotine addiction has historically been one of the hardest addictions to break.” Toxic levels of nicotine are much lower for children than for adults, Whalen noted.
Rep. Sue Chew, D-Boise, noted that a clause in the bill requires any mail-ordered electronic cigarette purchased on a credit or debit card to be shipped only to the address of record of the cardholder, as part of its age-verification requirements. She questioned whether that wouldn’t limit adults in purchasing the product, as well as children. Nonini said, “I guess I would rather err on the side of keeping ‘em out of the hands of as many young people as possible, as opposed to changing this.”
To become law, the bill still must pass the full House and Senate and receive the governor’s signature.
Rusche praised Nonini for proposing the bill, and said, “Sometimes you just have to take first downs instead of touchdowns.”
Eked-out win teaches Idaho Democrat a lesson 
lovetohateme on January 30 at 4:05 p.m.
Reputable electronic cigarette retailers already refuse to sell to minors. These laws are bloat legislation, regulating something that is already self-regulated. I purchase electronic cigarette products on a regular basis. Before they would even tell me about their products they asked for my ID. Then they asked about current smoking habits, not just in order to help me find the appropriate product, but also to help ensure they were not selling to someone who was a non-smoker. When I made my first purchase they took down all of my information so they could track it. Upon return visits they continued to ask for my ID to compare it with their information on record. Eventually the people operating the store I go to the most learned who I was and stopped checking my ID, but every time someone from a different store is filling in or if it is a new employee who hasn’t met me yet, I get carded and compared to the information in the system. They are very careful not to sell to minors.
Electronic cigarette sellers already (and have for years) check ID and will not sell to minors. They try to avoid selling to anyone but smokers. There is no need for legislation that will just add another job onto our already-burdened police departments to “check up on.” This is ludicrously unnecessary.
Way to go on just building up additional bureaucracy, Representative Nonini.
Electricman1 on January 30 at 4:28 p.m.
In the absence of any regulations, e-cigarette manufacturers (with their dirty bathtub made e - juice) are not subject to any of the rigorous standards as the manufacturers of approved cessation products. Approved nicotine patches, gum and inhalers all had to be proved safe and effective; e-cigarettes have never been shown to be either safe or effective . FDA analysis of e-cigarettes found their vapor contains nicotine and other harmful chemicals known to be toxic and cancer-causing.
E-cigarettes serve as a “bridge product” that smokers use at times and in places where traditional tobacco smoking is prohibited. This may tend to perpetuate their addiction and use of real cigarettes. Furthermore, e-cigarettes may be used by young people considering smoking as a “starter” product. This is especially concerning to the authors who note that the cartridges can be purchased over the Internet with youth-focused flavoring like grape and chocolate.
Nicotine -one of the most toxic and addicting of all drugs and it is toxic by all routes of exposure including the intact skin. ….also used as a contact insecticidal.
Which of the following poisons is the most deadly?
1. Arsenic
2. Strychnine
3. Nicotine
If you guessed # 3, you are correct. The lethal dosage for a 150 pound adult is 60 mg. The lethal dosage for # 2 is 75 mg and the lethal dosage for # 1 is 200 mg. In other words, nicotine is three times as toxic as arsenic and one and one half times as toxic as strychnine.
suicidekings on January 30 at 4:28 p.m.
Uhhh, really? people sell these things to kids? Ban the sale, they will just get someone else to buy them. Waste of time. Just ban everything. That will work. How about we teach our kids to pull up there PANTS! Oh, that get’s banned too? Heath! Pants! Now!
greenlibertarian on January 30 at 5:08 p.m.
$40 worth of disposable E-Cigs and I broke my long term cigarette habit.
I don’t smoke anymore, nor use an E-Cig either. Nicotine free!
skylerwilson101 on January 30 at 6:43 p.m.
I agree there is already self- regulation within this market. I use Green Nicotine ( http://greennicotine.com/ ) and they require ID every time I make purchases, and in fact they even require id verification when purchasing through their website, that requires you to be 21 and the purchaser in order to receive the package. They are just creating bills like these on high alert for electronic cigarette issues that do not exist. E-cigs are the safest and easist ways to quit smoking and these law makers want to make them look bad, when they are actually helping thousands of people.
RedCedar on January 30 at 7:54 p.m.
Is this a response to a problem we actually have, or is it just a way for the Mormons to play at outlawing tobacco, sort of like the way the fundamentalists periodically play at banning abortion by doing things like requiring parental notification, banning procedures that are almost never done, etc. It seems like it’s just window-dressing so some legislators can go back home and and say they’re protecting our children.
EKeller on January 30 at 8:54 p.m.
Nicotine delivered by a mist is very different than nicotine delivered via cigarette smoke. Nicotine in cigarette smoke is delivered on droplets of lung-clogging tar, accompanied by particulates, poisonous gasses, and thousands of chemicals created by the process of combustion. Since e-cigarettes are not burned, they lack all these elements that are thought to be responsible for 99% of smoking-related diseases.
I think it is very conscientious of Idaho e-cigarette vendors to not only check ID to ensure would-be purchasers are of legal smoking age, but also to ask whether they currently smoke. Those who are somewhat truth-challenged will tell you that the purpose of e-cigarettes is to create new addiction. The truth is that e-cigarette vendors don’t need to sell to youth or to non-smokers. There are millions of smokers who have almost given up all hope of ever being able to quit because of their need for nicotine. They are finding e-cigarettes to be an acceptable alternative that greatly reduces health risks compared with smoking.
Three years ago, I used to be kept awake by the sound of my wheezing, and had a nasty “smoker’s cough”. The wheezing is gone and so is the cough. The e-cigarette users who have been smoke free for a year, 2 years, 3 years or more is growing exponentially.
lovetohateme on January 31 at 2:22 p.m.
I’m sorry, Electricman1, but your facts are bogus. Testing of electronic cigarette solutions showed nicotine, dihydrogen monoxide, propylene glycol, and artificial flavorings.
Nicotine - a substance that is present in many everyday foods like potatoes and eggplants. In fact, some nicotine solutions use eggplant and potatoes for their nicotine source so their product is in every way tobacco-free.
Dihydrogen Monoxide - a chemical that is lethal in high dosages and is often used in industrial solvents, nuclear power plants, and as fire retardant. Commonly known as water.
Propylene Glycol - this creates the vapor you see from e-cigarettes. It is commonly used for fog machines and other theatrical purposes. It is suspension agent in many common household food products—food coloring, artificial vanilla, Mio water flavoring, etc.
Artificial Flavors - the same ones you find in any flavored product.
None of these has been linked to any increase in average of cancer rate or other negative side effects associated with traditional cigarettes. That’s right, even nicotine is not a carcinogen, and recent research has shown that it may not even be as addicting as was once thought—caffeine is more addictive. It seems that the actual behavior pattern of smoking, oral fixation, and traditional cigarette additives are what make them so addicting. This makes e-cigarettes perfectly placed to help someone stop smoking, because it contains nicotine (or not, there are some nicotine-free e-cig solutions), and it more or less perfectly replicates the smoking experience solving the behavioral addiction and oral fixation. All traditional smoking cessation aids (patches, gum, prescription drugs) are flawed in that they don’t satisfy the behavior.
So ask yourself which is safer: a product with these four relatively safe (common in food already) ingredients, or traditional cigarettes which can have upwards of 40 known carcinogens?
By the way, an excellent website for learning more about the actual effects of electronic cigarettes is The Rest of the Story, a blog by Dr. Michael Siegel. He is a noted physician, and a professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences at Boston University’s School of Public Health. He has also testified against tobacco companies in some of the largest court challenges of their products. Link to some of his articles about e-cigarettes
Smokee on January 31 at 8:24 p.m.
I completely agree with restricting e-cigs to adults, but this is going to be an interesting conversation around all of the home delivery options out there. Traditional cigarettes an clearly be screened by staff at the corner store (hopefully) but when all it takes is the possession of a credit card to purchase an e-cig, that just makes it too easy. I am sure someone can come up with a good solution to this.
I do not think that the solution should be to can all online sales, but something needs to be done.
Here is an article on the topic with its own stream of thought on the issue.
http://www.smokee.com/electronic-cigarettes-and-children/
ParkerMadeira on April 03 at 2:38 p.m.
While I completely agree with restricting minors’ access to any nicotine products, many localities seem to be extending that restriction to how and where adults may use e-cigarettes.
There are some great articles on http://v2cigs.com