Guam Legislative Speaker Benjamin Cruz, D-Tumon, was the co-sponsor of a current law “Natasha Protection Act of 2005,” which bans smoking in most public spaces. Last week Cruz introduced Bill 198-34, which would amend the above, to include electronic cigarettes.
In this bill the devices are defined as “any electronic product that can be used to aerosolize and/or deliver nicotine or other substances to the person inhaling the device.” In a statement last Wednesday Cruz said, “No one who visits a public place should be forced to inhale potentially dangerous chemicals as the price of admission.”
How dangerous is secondhand vapor?
However, public health experts have been pointing out that the fact that the emitted aerosol contains nicotine and other potentially toxic chemicals, does not equate to the vapor being harmful. Toxicity would depend upon “the levels of these chemicals in ambient air under actual (real-life) conditions and the duration of exposure, ”said public health expert Dr. Michael Siegel back in his blog last May.
Siegel has referred to current research saying, “To date, there is no evidence that there is any substantial exposure to harmful chemicals in real-life situations that most adults and children encounter. On the contrary, there is evidence that secondhand “vapor” dissipates rapidly and that exposure to nicotine and other chemicals is very low.”
