San Francisco will be the first city in the U.S. to ban the sale and distribution of e-cigarettes, NPR reported Tuesday—a significant move considering the nation’s biggest producer of e-cigs, Juul Labs, is based in the city.
According to NPR, San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors passed the ordinance with a unanimous vote on June 25. City Attorney Dennis Herrera called the decision “a decisive step to help prevent another generation of San Francisco children from becoming addicted to nicotine.”
“This temporary moratorium wouldn’t be necessary if the federal government had done its job,” Herrera said. “E-cigarettes are a product that, by law, are not allowed on the market without FDA review. For some reason, the FDA has so far refused to follow the law. If the federal government is not going to act, San Francisco will.”
The city’s mayor, London Breed, is expected to sign the legislation within 10 days. The law would be enforced seven months from then, in early 2020, and will prohibit the sales of e-cigs in brick-and-mortar stores as well as online if they’re being shipped to San Francisco addresses.
Juul responded to the vote in a written statement, claiming prohibition will drive former adult smokers “back to deadly cigarettes” and create a “thriving black market instead of addressing the actual causes of underage access and use.”
Read the full story from NPR below:
After graduating from Indiana University-Bloomington with a bachelor’s in journalism, Anicka joined TriMed’s Chicago team in 2017 covering cardiology. Close to her heart is long-form journalism, Pilot G-2 pens, dark chocolate and her dog Harper Lee.