A tenants' rights group in Santa Monica is asking city officials to ban e-cigarettes, a relatively new technology that delivers nicotine in the form of a vapor instead of smoke.
So, this week's Q-Line question asks:
Do you think e-cigs are dangerous and why?
Here are your responses:
"The liberals are behind this useless ban. Blame them for infringing and trying to regulate people's personal freedoms. They're scum!"
"These e-cigarettes are harmful, or they would be allowed to sell them to children. They should be banned indoors."
"Yes, they are dangerous. Considering e-cigarettes come in a variety of flavors including chocolate and gummy bear, it's obvious they are being marketed to kids. No wonder the number of teens using them doubled in the short span of just one year. They contain nicotine, which is very dangerous to the teenage brain, and they contain heavy metals, and chemicals like formaldehyde. E-cigarettes are just the latest gimmick of the tobacco companies to encourage a life-long dependence on tobacco, and the act of smoking in general. And from what I understand, the group is not asking to ban e-cigarettes, but to include them in the existing city smoking ordinances, and keep them a certain distance from schools."
"I think they're harmless, helpful in cutting down secondhand smoke, and a good alternative to regular cigarettes."
"Forced to inhale your e-cigarette nicotine vapor? No thank you!"
"I believe that e-cigarettes are dangerous. All of the reports find that there is nicotine and known hazards. I believe we should regulate them like regular cigarettes."
"I live in a senior building where most people are on their last journey. I find it amusing that people can smoke in a senior building. Do you get the irony? They can smoke in a senior building, but they can't in a bar. It's really sad."
"I do think they are dangerous. It creates a form of secondhand noxious smoke. I have had my asthma exacerbated when I've been around them. I hope the city of Santa Monica bans them in all the places they've banned cigarettes."
"I think all cigarettes, electric or tobacco, are dangerous. Anything that affects your lungs or your psyche to the point where you get so anxious that you can't function with out it is dangerous."
"Not only do I think e-cigarettes are dangerous, but I think it would be absolute foolishness for them to allow cigarettes around. Pretty soon children will be smoking regular cigarettes and they will lead them to smoking marijuana. Pretty soon they will be doing all kinds of drugs and taking heroin."
"Electronic cigarettes are dangerous. In the so-called vapor that comes off the end there are toxins, metals and … cancer causing chemicals, which are very, very serious. The major tobacco companies have all purchased electronic cigarette companies and they are marketing them without restrictions and they are not telling the truth."
"I don't smoke and I don't like being around people who smoke. But everyone who has any purpose being in Downtown Santa Monica can tell you that existing laws prohibiting smoking in certain public areas, for instance the promenade, bus stops and the back and front of the Main Public Library, these laws are seldom if ever enforced. The lack of enforcement now is encouraging the brazen, open smoking of pot in the very same public areas that prohibit smoking in the first place. Now the City Council plans to pass a ban on e-cigarettes. Well, who is going to enforce it? The phantom enforcers of the other non-smoking laws in Santa Monica? Come on now."
"I have mixed feelings about the vapor cigarettes. They may induce younger people to smoke but, at least, the smoker is only getting the addictive substance, not a bunch of cancer-causing chemicals through secondhand smoke. Frankly, I wish my next door neighbor smoked vapor cigarettes instead of the old fashion kind, which leach smoke and odor into my apartment such that I can smell it. At night she opens her windows to let the day's smoke escape into the night and into my open windows. The secondhand smoke exacerbates my asthma and I cannot sleep in my bedroom since she and I share that wall and the wall of my bathroom. I cannot use the cabinet under my bathroom sink because that is where the stench of stale smoke is greatest, so the cabinet is sealed off. The notion of smoke-free housing by attrition is a long, drawn out process with plenty of chronic and terminal illness before it comes to pass. I say let them smoke vapor cigs and ban cigarette, cigar and pipe smoking in apartment units now."
