American Heart Association Board Member and Dean of Public Health at the UVM College of Medicine, Dr. Jan Carney testified before legislators and spoke at a legislative panel last month urging lawmakers to include a ban on e-cigarettes in the same areas that smoking is prevented under Vermont’s Clean Indoor Air laws.
Dr. Carney noted that UVM’s Tobacco-Free Policy took effect on the campus on August 1, 2015 and defines Tobacco-Free as prohibiting the use of all forms of tobacco, including e-cigarettes.
“From a campus-wide survey conducted last fall,” said Carney, “we learned that more than 25% of freshman undergraduates used e-cigarettes in the last 30 days and underclassmen were nearly 3 times more likely to use e-cigarettes than upperclassmen.”
“In a follow-up survey conducted a year later, and only about 3 months after the policy was implemented, we have already seen a significant decrease in reported exposure to second-hand smoke, and a significant decrease in tobacco use in undergraduate students. This speaks volumes to the strength of tobacco and e-cigarette-free policies in promoting a non-smoking norm. In our case, it happened after only 3 months.”
Carney urged lawmakers to pass H.171 to include e-cigarettes in Vermont’s Clean Indoor Air Laws because the secondhand vapor from e-cigarettes is not harmless water vapor. It contains nicotine, particles, irritants, and potential carcinogens.
Please urge your legislators to support H.171 by clicking on the following link. https://yourethecure.org/aha/advocacy/actioncenter.aspx
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