San Francisco became the first city in the US to outlaw the sale, distribution, and manufacturing of e-cigarettes when the city’s Mayor London Breed signed a unanimously passed ordinance on Friday.
The ordinance states that “no person shall sell or distribute an electronic cigarette to a person in San Francisco” that has not undergone a premarket review by the FDA. To date, no e-cigarette products have undergone premarket review, so the ordinance effectively amounts to a ban on e-cigarettes. Flavored tobacco is also targeted by the ordinance.
The city board hopes the ordinance will reduce the heavy use of addictive nicotine products among teenagers. The new regulation has called out the FDA’s inaction in researching and studying the health impacts of e-cigarettes. Large companies, like JUUL that is headquartered in San Francisco, have pushed back against the regulation claiming that more people will switch back to cigarettes because of the city’s e-cigarette ban.
The ban will be implemented over the next seven months.
