E Cigarette Ban
It is estimated that over 40 million people in America smoke. Of those 40 million roughly 400,000 will die each year from a tobacco caused disease. That makes smoking the leading cause of preventable deaths. That’s why Missoula County public schools have stepped up and decided to ban e cigarettes. The public schools tobacco policy now targets e cigarettes as they become more and more popular amount high school students.
E cigarettes are battery powered and give users the same rush as a real cigarette. The only difference is that you will be exhaling a vapor and not smoke. So in essence they are completely tobacco free. But that doesn’t mean they are safe. That’s why the language in the new Missoula County Public Schools policy clearly states that teachers, students and staff cannot use “nicotine innovations” on campus or at school functions.
The attorney for the Missoula County Public Schools, Elizabeth Kaleva, said the Office of Public Instruction was very firm in its recommendation for districts to ban “nicotine innovations” such as e cigarettes. She said it is the first time she can recall the Office of Public Instruction, or OPI, asking schools to have a look at their tobacco policies.
On November 6th, 2011 the Missoula County Public Schools passed the updated policy at its school board meeting. Districts all over the state received memos from OPI last year asking them to make these changes to their tobacco policies. However, Missoula’s largest school district in western Montana is the only district to actually adopt the policies.
And while the policy doesn’t specifically mention e cigarettes, according to Scott Bixler, the language technically covers everything from e cigarettes to nicotine gum. Kaleva said the school district will interpret the language to ban vapor cigarettes and other device that causes nicotine to enter the bloodstream. And until otherwise stated, e cigarettes are included in that.
And even though the Food and Drug Administrations attempt to ban the sale of e cigarettes was overruled by the federal court, jurisdictions across the nation are still targeting them. Government agencies say the health risks of these devices are still unknown which means they should not be considered safe. They believe that e cigarettes could open the door for minors all over the country to start smoking real cigarettes.
According to studies done in the US and Britain, e cigarettes can help smokers stop smoking real cigarettes. The problem is that there is no evidence proving the device isn’t harmful.
