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Lafayette IN: Council Extends Smoking Ban to Include Vaping

The City Council of Lafayette in Indiana has approved an ordinance that bans the use of e-cigarettes in most public spaces.

Diane Caruana

March 8, 2018

Science keeps showing us that e-cigs are significantly safer than regular cigarettes, therefore regulating them in the same way as the latter sends the wrong message to the public.

Last Monday, Indiana’s council members voted unanimously in favor of an ordinance that will change the current smoking ban to include vaping. Vaping will only be still allowed in public spaces where smoking is also permitted.

Lafayette council President Ron Campbell said that the ordinance was drafted following numerous complaints, received by locals worried about the dangers of secondhand vapor exposure. Several other cities in Indiana have already implemented such bans including the capital Indianapolis, Greenwood and Bloomington.

Vaping is safer than smoking, but subjected to identical bans

As vaping bans keep spreading across US states and cities like wildfire, public health experts keep cautioning about the dangers of regulating vaping products in the same way as regular cigarettes.

Studies keep indicating that e-cigarettes are significantly safer than the latter, and more importantly they have been found to be the most effective smoking cessation tools available to date. Putting them on the same shelf as deadly cigarettes sends the wrong message to the public and is having a detrimental effect on public health.

Read Further: WFYI