A recent proposal by the Los Angeles City Council will bar citizens from smoking e-cigarettes in public places, according to a report by LAist.
The committee stated its support for the suggested ordinance, which would ban e-cig smoking in bars, parks, and other communal areas.
The Arts, Parks, Health, Aging and River Committee first brought the measure forward Monday night, in hopes that people will start treating the electronic cigarettes like traditional smokes.
NBC Los Angeles reported that each member of the committee agreed to back the plan. The measure will now go on for a vote by the full panel in early March.
"This is something that will ensure public safety for people who don't necessarily want to be around vapors from e-cigarettes," one of the proposal's authors Councilman Mitch O'Farrell told KTLA.
The measure seeks to also prohibit LA residents from smoking e-cigarettes in outdoor dining areas, farmers' markets, nightclubs and beaches. But smokers on film production sets and in vaporizer lounges will still be able to puff away under the proposed law.
People 18 and over would be able to purchase vaping merchandise at designated smoking stores.
The bill comes just two months after City Attorney Mike Feuer first introduced it with councilmembers O'Farrell, Paul Koretz and Bernard Parks, CBS Los Angeles reported.
Although some studies have suggested that e-cigs are not as detrimental to overall health as traditional cigarettes when it comes to heart issues, Feuer maintains that the smoke from an e-cigarette also comes with dangerous carcinogens.
"We have made such progress over the years, where smoking is down to about 13 percent, and it would be a shame to reverse that," health director for LA county Dr. Jonathan Fielding told LAist. "We recognize that some say [e-cigarettes] help them quit smoking, but the strength of scientific evidence to get smokers to quit is not there."
