Health officials in the town of Westminster, about 60 miles from Boston, will be voting to become the first town to propose barring the sale of all tobacco products, according to The Associated Press.
The health officials plan to bar the sale of cigarettes, chewing tobacco and cigars, as well as electronic cigarettes, citing health risks tied to the nicotine products.
Though smoking restrictions in certain settings have already been put into place in Massachusetts, Westminster, a town of 7,700 people, appears to be the first to consider a town-wide ban on the sale of all tobacco products.
The Board of Health will hear public comments on a proposed regulation on Wednesday that could make Westminster the first municipality in the United States to ban sales of all tobacco products within town lines, the AP reported. A three-member Westminster Board of Health will be required to vote to pass the ban.
"To my knowledge, it would be the first in the nation to enact a total ban," said Thomas Carr, director of national policy at the American Lung Association. "We commend the town for doing it."
The Westminster regulation points to a ruling by the state's highest court holding that "the right to engage in business must yield to the paramount right of government to protect the public health by any rational means," according to the AP.
Citing U.S. health authorities, the proposed regulation states that there is "conclusive evidence that tobacco smoking causes cancer, respiratory and cardiac diseases, (and) negative birth outcomes."
