• Ingham County Health Officer Linda S. Vail

LANSING - The Ingham County Health Department hosted a public forum on Thursday, Oct. 22nd to hear the community's concerns about their proposal to regulate e-cigarette use. The proposed regulation would require vendors to obtain a tobacco license and refuse sales to minors.

Studies from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Center for Tobacco Products show that e-cigarette use among middle and high school students have tripled from 2013 to 2014. Studies also show that teens' use of e-cigarettes is higher than any other tobacco product, including conventional cigarettes.

While there was an overall agreement between the Ingham County Health Department and the public that nicotine should be kept out of the hands of minors, there was some controversy about whether e-cigarettes are considered a tobacco product.

Ingham County Health Officer Linda S. Vail stated that the vaping-only community sees themselves as completely separate from tobacco. However, Dave Hodgkins, Government Relations Director of the American Heart Association, disagrees.

"I think the tension really lies in that a lot of the terminology you're hearing today like 'vaping' - that's industry terminology... so when health organizations come out and call it what it really is, that really hits a nerve with some of the shop owners."

Hodgkins further explained that the American Heart Association does view e-cigarettes as tobacco products since nicotine is a derivative of tobacco.

"The truth is that there's not a great deal of evidence on these products yet, but what is emerging is alarming. We are seeing that trends among teens particularly is growing exponentially for the youths. That's alarming considering that they're being marketed to with flavors like bubblegum for example... why is that necessary?"

However, Vail says that's not the point.

"I'm not here to really discuss the definition of tobacco, I'm talking about nicotine. We have some differences of opinion with regard to semantics, wording and definitions, but we have overwhelming support over what I consider to be the real issue, which is that we don't want to be selling nicotine to children, nor do we want children consuming or inhaling nicotine products."

According to Vail, currently almost anyone can buy and sell e-cigarettes in Ingham County, including children. If the regulation passes, licensed tobacco and e-cigarette vendors will be subject to compliance checks to verify the refusal of sales to minors.

A resolution will be made on whether or not to pass the proposal during a formal public hearing on Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2015. The hearing will begin at 6:30 p.m. in the Ingham County Board of Commissioners Room of the Ingham County Courthouse (341 S. Jefferson Street, Mason). If passed, the proposed regulation would take effect Jan. 1, 2016.