Right now, Dallas restricts vaping on city property for the sake of the health of employees and visiting residents. But a change proposed by the city’s Environmental Health Committee would extend the vaping ban to all places where smoking cigarettes is already prohibited if it’s later passed by the City Council. The proposed change was approved by the city's Environmental Commission on Wednesday.
The city prohibits smoking in any public indoor or enclosed area, any area designated as nonsmoking by an owner of an establishment, on park property, in workplaces and in any retail or service establishment.
After examining numerous medical studies and peer-reviewed articles, the Environmental Health Committee, which makes recommendations to the Environmental Commission, said it agrees that there is a correlation between vaping aerosol exposure and negative health effects for vulnerable populations, such as children and people with asthma. The committee said in a May 10 memo that most major cities and some smaller ones in Texas have established ordinances that prohibit vaping in areas where smoking isn’t allowed, with some exceptions for bars and restaurants.
For example, last March, the Houston City Council unanimously approved a ban on vaping and e-cigarettes in public spaces. In 2017, the city of Austin amended its smoking ordinance to also ban vaping in public spaces such as city buildings, workplaces, restaurants and parks. In 2014, the city of Frisco became the first in North Texas to ban vaping and e-cigarettes in public spaces.
What’s with all the bans? Each of those cities cited health concerns about vapers and bystanders as reasons behind the change. Now, Dallas is citing similar concerns behind its proposed change.
Dr. Folashade Afolabi, a pediatric pulmonologist who serves on the Environmental Health Committee, said there are quite a few health risks associated with vaping. For one, Afolabi said, vaping can worsen symptoms of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.“We really don’t know the long-term effects of vaping on the young lung." – Dr. Folashade Afolabi, Environmental Health Committee
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The committee says that e-cigarette aerosol exposure also leads to increased blood pressure and heart rate, similar to regular cigarettes. It also causes increased airway inflammation, similar to changes seen in asthma, according to the committee.
Additionally, there are just too many unanswered questions about the effects of vaping, Afolabi said, “We really don’t know the long-term effects of vaping on the young lung.”
The health of younger residents is a cause for concern because Afolabi said adolescent vaping was on the rise before the pandemic and adolescents are still vaping today. According to NBC, data from a survey led by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration found that 14.1% of high school students and 3.3% of middle school students said they’d recently used an e-cigarette or other vape product.
Candace Thompson, the environmental commissioner for District 4, said the proposed change is meant to protect the health of bystanders from secondhand vape. Thompson is also chair of the Environmental Health Committee.
Afolabi and the committee said data suggests there are negative health effects associated with secondhand vaping. The committee said that volatile organic compounds and ultra-fine particles including flavorings, nicotine and gas compounds have been found in e-cigarette aerosols, and these have been proven to impair indoor air quality.
Studies have found even non-nicotine e-cigarettes can contain harmful chemicals similar to regular e-cigarettes, according to the committee. Additionally, there have been incidents in which e-cigarettes were labeled as nicotine-free but in fact contained nicotine.
Gregory Conley, director of legislative and external affairs for American Vapor Manufacturers, a trade group that represents small and medium-sized manufacturers of vaping products, has a different perspective.
“For the last decade-plus, businesses across Texas have been self-policing this issue with no major calamities,” he said in an emailed statement. “As it stands today, any patron who ignores a demand by a business to stop vaping is subject to be trespassed. There is no need to strip business owners of this authority when toxicological studies of vaping products have continually shown that vaping aerosol does not pose a risk to bystanders.”
Some say there isn’t enough evidence to suggest that secondhand vapor is harmful, as Afolabi suggests. Conley directed us to two studies, one published by the UK government in 2016 and another published in 2014 in the peer-reviewed journal BMC Public Health that said there isn't evidence of harm to bystanders from exposure to vapor from e-cigarettes and that health risks from secondhand vape "are likely to be extremely low." However, the CDC says the aerosol exhaled by people who vape can expose bystanders to harmful substances.
Conley doesn’t think restricting adults from vaping will discourage teens from experimenting with nicotine. Instead, he said “taking away the convenience factor could lead some adults to choose to smoke rather than vape.”
Thompson said she’s not aware of any pushback on the proposed change in Dallas but wouldn’t be surprised if there was some down the line. “Change is never easy,” she said.
