DULUTH, Minn. (Sept. 10, 2013) – An e-cigarrette ban approved yesterday by the Duluth City Council will have the practical effect of reinforcing tobacco cigarettes as the dominant nicotine product, the R Street Institute said today.

The council voted 6 to 3 late Sept. 9 to approve the ban, despite testimony that affirmed e-cigarettes are 98 percent safer than traditional tobacco cigarettes and pose no health threat to non-smoking bystanders. An amendment that would have permitted e-cigarette use in age-restricted stores that sell nicotine vapor products exclusively also failed.

“Unfortunately, and in a move that sounds sensible, but flies in the face of the best available scientific evidence, the Duluth City Council voted to ban use of e-cigarettes in areas where smoking is banned,” R Street Senior Fellow Dr. Joel Nitzkin said. “The science is clear: exhaled e-cigarette vapor poses no risk to bystanders that would justify such a ban.”

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