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San Francisco Bans E-Cigarette Sales

posted by takyon on Wednesday June 26 2019, @02:16AM   
from the vape-nay dept.

upstart writes:

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

San Francisco bans e-cigarette sales

San Francisco has become the first US city to ban e-cigarette sales until their health effects are clearer. Officials on Tuesday voted to ban stores selling the vaporisers and made it illegal for online retailers to deliver to addresses in the city.

The California city is home to Juul Labs, the most popular e-cigarette producer in the US. Juul said the move would drive smokers back to cigarettes and "create a thriving black market".

San Francisco's mayor, London Breed, has 10 days to sign off the legislation, but has indicated that she would. The law would begin to be enforced seven months from that date, although there have been reports firms could mount a legal challenge.

Anti-vaping activists say firms deliberately target young people by offering flavoured products. Critics say that not only is more scientific investigation into the health impact needed, vaping can encourage young people to switch to cigarettes.

Also at CNET.

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Original Submission

• link health insurance rates to smoking link health insurance rates to smoking (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 26 2019, @04:58AM (4 children)

  by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 26 2019, @04:58AM (#859999)

  Possibly a better solution is to tax the "sin" and have that money fund the extra
  health care costs associated with the "sin".

• Re:link health insurance rates to smoking Re:link health insurance rates to smoking (Score: 3, Insightful) by anubi on Wednesday June 26 2019, @05:29AM (1 child)

  by anubi (2828) on Wednesday June 26 2019, @05:29AM (#860003) Journal

  Be careful with this meme.

  Overweight and not exercising enough are also health risk factors.

  The infrastructure for reporting and verifying compliance is already in place. All it will take is a law to comply or face penalties.

  --
  "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]

  Parent

  • Re:link health insurance rates to smoking (Score: 2) by deimtee on Wednesday June 26 2019, @01:49PM

    by deimtee (3272) on Wednesday June 26 2019, @01:49PM (#860078) Journal

    There are already groups here in Oz pushing for a tax on added sugar in manufactured foods and drinks.

    --
    If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.

    Parent

• Re:link health insurance rates to smoking (Score: 3, Interesting) by zocalo on Wednesday June 26 2019, @06:38AM

  by zocalo (302) on Wednesday June 26 2019, @06:38AM (#860010)

  That's all well and good if you can not only quantify the medical effects of the "sin" but do so in a linear enough manner that X units of "sin" will cost "Y" dollars in medical expenses over the remaining lifetime of the sinner. Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way and some people would be able to, say, smoke 20 a day and live a full life whereas someone else might only do a couple a day and be dead of lung cancer before they turn 40. That means you're basically trying to extrapolate numbers from statistical medical data, where the raw data you need is obfuscated by countless other medical, environmental, and other factors , so any "price" you put on the sin for tax purposes is going to be a SWAG at best - and that's before you consider things like medical care costs often tend to climb drastically with age-related frailties.

  --
  UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!

  Parent

• Re:link health insurance rates to smoking (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 26 2019, @07:19AM

  by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 26 2019, @07:19AM (#860012)

  Possibly a better solution would be to stop manufacturing problems so then you can solve them.

  Parent