E-cigarettes included in University of California smoking ban
Kathleene, an electronic cigarette store employee, smokes an electronic cigarette in Paris, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2013. The European Parliament voted to impose warning labels covering 65 percent of cigarette packs, rejecting a measure for blank packaging instead. Legislators also voted for new limits on advertising for electronic cigarettes, but rejected a measure that would have restricted them to medical use only. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)
BERKELEY, Calif. >> University of California officials are reminding students and faculty that the system wide smoking ban going into effect next year includes electronic cigarettes.
Josh Moskowitz, a member of the UC committee that wrote the smoking ban, tells the Oakland Tribune (http://bit.ly/1cJbFIs ) that questions about the long term health effects of e-cigarettes led officials to include them in the ban.
Backers claim electronic cigarettes, which heat a flavored liquid until it produces a vapor, but no smoke, are safer than traditional smokes.
The newspaper says about 10 percent of UC employees smoke cigarettes, and 8 percent of students smoke.
It’s unclear how many on UC campuses use the new electronic cigarettes.
All 10 schools in the system will go tobacco-free by Jan. 2. The ban also includes smokeless tobacco, or chew.
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