The requested URL /getthefacts.php?id=824 was not found on this server.Share This Story!Let friends in your social network know what you are reading aboutTwitterGoogle+LinkedInPinterestPosted!A link has been posted to your Facebook feed.Do smoking bans apply to e-cigarettes?Look at any electronic cigarette company's website, and you'll read that you can smoke the battery-operated devices almost anywhere.Up until recently, Blu eCigs boasted on its website that one benefit over traditional cigarettes is that you can "Smoke anywhere!"The website has since toned down its language to say that you can "Smoke in many places where traditional cigarettes aren't allowed!"The confusion about where you can or cannot smoke e-cigarettes has posed a challenge for the travel industry.The FDA has not ruled on the safety of e-cigarettes, but the agency will propose a rule on how to regulate them down the road.That's not stopping people who want to quit smoking from turning to the smokeless, odorless alternative.According to the Tobacco Vapor Electronic Cigarette Association, which represents the industry, e-cigarette makers have been able to capture 10% to 14% of the 44 million tobacco users in the U.S.E-cigarettes heat liquid containing nicotine to produce vapor.

In addition to water, the e-cigs typically contain vegetable glycerine, artificial flavoring and sometimes, propylene glycol, which is also found in asthma inhalers."E-cigarettesas a whole have no secondhand smoke," says Ray Story, chief executive officer of the association."They don't emit anything."ButStanton Glantz, professor of medicine and director of the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education at the University of California, San Francisco, says, "They do emit toxic chemicals into the environment."Myopinion is that they're dangerous — not as dangerous as conventional cigarettes — but that they're dangerous," he says.Where exactly can travelers smoke e-cigarettes?The answer is still not clear.Bill Mosley, a spokesman for the Department of Transportation, says the current ban on smoking on planes applies to e-cigarettes, though it does not explicitly say so."Therehas been some confusion over whether the Department's ban on smoking includes a ban on (the) use of e-cigarettes," he says.To clear up that confusion, in September 2011, the department proposed an amendment to explicitly ban e-cigarettes.

A final rule is expected by the end of this year.Passengers who fail to comply with the no-smoking ban can currently be fined between $1,100 and $11,000 by the Federal Aviation Administration.Airports and hotels are generally on their own when deciding how to deal with e-cigarettes.You can't power up an e-cig at Baltimore/ Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport.e cigarette locations buyBut you can at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.e cigarette jettable"State law governs indoor smoking but does not address electronic cigarettes, nor have we chosen at this point to govern their use by ordinance," says spokesman Patrick Hogan.Same goes for hotels, which in recent years have been more aggressive in getting rid of smoking rooms and public spaces on their properties.Wyndham Hotel group, for example, has not made any changes to smoking polices but "will continue to monitor the trend as it emerges," says spokeswoman Kathryn Zambito.But Jeffery Waddell, director of Westin Hilton Head Island Resort and Spa, says, "We would treat an electronic cigarette as a cigarette.e cigarette kosice

There is nicotine vapor, and it falls into the realm of smoking."e cigarette nedirJames Donessoni has been vaping at his desk for four years.Every 10 minutes or so, the Rhode Island graphic designer takes a drag on his e-cigarette, inhaling an aerosol made from heated liquid nicotine.e cigarette mackayIt smells like cinnamon or Red Bull, his flavors of choice, the puff of white mist dissipates in seconds, and no one in his open office space complains, he said, not even his boss.e cigarette most popular ukAnd the days of leaving his desk for a cigarette break every hour or two?Long gone.“To be honest with you, it’s made me more productive because I would find any little excuse to get that [nicotine] fix,” he said, noting that he has quit smoking tobacco all together.

“I really can’t see how it can be any more harmful than the air conditioning ducts or the heating ducts, and all the crap that’s sitting in there.” Thank you for signing up!Sign up for more newsletters here Like many employers, the consulting firm where Donessoni works doesn’t have a policy about electronic cigarettes or other electronic nicotine inhalers.But with the use of e-cigarettes growing, and health risks unclear, companies are grappling with whether to allow employees to vape, the electronic equivalent of smoking.So far, the battery-powered devices have been banned in workplaces, bars, and restaurants in three states — North Dakota, New Jersey, and Utah — and in 172 cities and counties, including Boston and 51 other Massachusetts municipalities.But in jurisdictions with no specific regulations in place, people are puffing away.Some employees, like Donessoni, vape openly in break rooms or cubicles; others sneak into bathroom stalls.Many companies have not yet updated smoking policies to include e-cigarettes, but most that have are prohibiting them.

Walmart limits use to designated smoking areas; Starbucks forbids smoking of any kind within 25 feet of its stores.CVS, which doesn’t allow smoking anywhere on its corporate campuses, has a no-tolerance policy on the electronic version.McDonald’s has banned e-cigs in its company-owned restaurants, but leaves the decision up to owners at its franchises.UPS not only doesn’t allow e-cigarettes, it also charges nonunion employees who use them a $150 monthly insurance premium, the same amount it charges regular smokers.New rules in the Affordable Care Act allow employers to charge workers who smoke up to 50 percent of the annual cost of their health care coverage.If other companies follow UPS’s lead, employees could be similarly penalized for getting their nicotine electronically.E-cigarettes may also violate terms of smoking-cessation programs required to avoid the charge, benefits specialists say.The use of e-cigarettes has risen rapidly to a $2 billion industry since they were introduced in the United States near the end of the last decade.

It’s still a fraction of the $94 billion combustible cigarette industry, but some analysts predict that as tobacco use declines, consumption of vaporized nicotine products — which are generally cheaper — will surpass traditional cigarettes in the next decade.The Food and Drug Administration plans to start regulating e-cigarettes as tobacco products, but studies about health effects are mixed.There is no evidence so far that vaping causes cancer or emphysema, and a recent study out of England found that e-cigarettes were more likely to help smokers quit than nicotine patches or gum.But the aerosol they produce contains nicotine, low levels of toxins, and ultrafine particles that could exacerbate asthma and other illnesses.Human resources consultant Karyn Rhodes advises corporate clients to ban electronic nicotine products as part of their no-smoking policies.“Anything that could potentially harm other employees, we tend to side on the more cautious,” said Rhodes, a vice president at the Cornerstone Group in Warwick, R.I.

‘I really can’t see how it can be any more harmful than [what is in] the air conditioning ducts or the heating ducts.’ Regardless of whether they allow e-cigarettes in the office, companies should enact policies before employees start testing the boundaries, said employment attorney Amber Elias.Such policies should delineate when, where, and if, vaping is allowed.“If you leave this area vague, you’re inviting conflict,” said Elias, who works in the Boston office of Fisher & Phillips.“If you have people with clouds of vapor rising from their cubes, how is that going to affect other people?” It’s also a matter of appearance.A supervisor at a central Massachusetts manufacturing firm, a recovering smoker, asked employment attorney Jonathan Sigel about vaping on the company floor.Sigel, of Mirick O’Connell in Westborough, advised him not to.“You are a senior manager,” Sigel told him.“Whether you are walking around with a lollipop sticking out of your mouth or a coffee stirrer, or an e-cigarette, it wouldn’t look very professional.” The company has since amended its no-smoking policy to prohibit e-cigarettes.

Some employers, however, see advantages in e-cigarettes.A small insurance company near Fort Myers, Fla., noted an increase in productivity from allowing employees to vape in the office unless a customer is present, according to news reports.The president of a spring manufacturer in Tulsa, Okla., who quit smoking after she tried e-cigarettes, went so far as to give vaping equipment to employees who smoked.Allowing employees to vape at work keeps them from going outside with the smokers, which could entice people trying to quit to have a real cigarette, said Gregory Conley, president of the American Vaping Association, an e-cigarette advocacy organization.“Being able to stay inside is a great incentive,” Conley said.But e-cigarette critics say vaping could trigger a desire for the real thing.E-cigarettes are not banned at Shechtman Halperin Savage LLP, a Pawtucket, R.I., law firm, but managing partner Stephen Shechtman is leaning toward doing so.“To me, when you quit smoking, you have to get away from it.