Question: What are the rules and regulations for smoking tobacco-less vapor cigarettes and other related products in restaurants and on airplanes?

Answer: Smoking tobacco-less electronic cigarettes is not allowed on airplanes and, by policy, in many other places.

But as far as legality goes, there is no state law restricting their use.

Hawaii’s smoke-free workplace and public place law does not cover “e-cigarettes,” although officials hope users voluntarily follow the restrictions placed on cigarette smokers.

Specifically, Section 328J of the Hawaii Revised Statutes defines “smoke” or “smoking” as “inhaling or exhaling the fumes of tobacco or any other plant material, or burning or carrying any lighted smoking equipment for tobacco or any other plant material.”

E-cigarettes, according to the Food and Drug Administration, typically “are composed of a rechargeable, battery-operated heating element, a replaceable cartridge that may contain nicotine or other chemicals, and an atomizer that, when heated, converts the contents of the cartridge into a vapor. This vapor can then be inhaled by the user.”

“Because there is no tobacco in them, (e-cigarettes) are not covered,” said Julian Lipsher, chief of the state Department of Health’s Chronic Disease Management and Control Branch, which includes the Tobacco Prevention & Education Program.

The “problematic issue,” he said, is that manufacturers claim you can smoke e-cigarettes anywhere, because they do not include tobacco.

 But you can’t smoke them on commercial airplanes, Lipsher said, while “parts of the Navy and Air Force” have policies prohibiting the use of e-cigarettes in the workplace, and “other jurisdictions have implemented policies, as well.”

Basically, it is up to individual business or property owners to determine a policy about where e-cigarettes can or cannot be used, he said.

With no force of law, the Health Department is advising private businesses and organizations, “particularly the visitor industry,” to adopt policies directing e-cigarette users to the same areas as smokers — away from enclosed or partially enclosed areas.

What about someone who wants to smoke an e-cigarette on public property — say, outside the Health Department?

“We would ask them to move at least 20 feet away,” Lipsher said.

And if they refused?

“We haven’t run into that situation because most people are aware of what the smoking law is and once you explain a policy, then most reasonable people would comply,” he said. “Again, you’re not taking the privilege away. You’re just identifying where you can use the item.”

Lipsher said there is no move to ban e-cigarettes, although there likely will be a proposal next legislative session to prohibit sales to minors. A proposal this past session to tax the sales of e-cigarettes went nowhere.

Lipsher noted that e-cigarettes are not now regulated by the FDA, although the FDA did “refute a claim that it’s a smoking-cessation device.”

The FDA says it “intends to regulate electronic cigarettes and related products in a manner consistent with its mission of protecting the public health” (see goo.gl/lVnMN.)

Mahalo

To the kind gentleman who knew our son, Reid, who died in a tree-trimming accident. He took care of our lunch tab at Tanaka Saimin the other day and his overwhelming kindness touched us deeply. We would like to thank him and all the others who knew our son and have shown their kindness to us. — Mike and Stasia Barcelona

(Reid Barcelona was trimming a coconut tree on the grounds of the Hilton Hawaiian Village when he fell to his death on June 11.)

Write to “Kokua Line” at Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 7 Waterfront Plaza, Suite 210, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Honolulu 96813; call 529-4773; fax 529-4750; or email kokualine@staradvertiser.com.