Dr. Shawn Jones of the Purchase Area Health District asked that the current smoking ordinance include the banning of e-cigarettes and all electronic smoking devices from public places, work places, and parks and recreation facilities.The proposed amendment also would expand the current ban on the use of tobacco products.
Jones said he was asking for the ban to be expanded to "any place where the public is gathering in an outdoor place." According to Jones, the ban would include all city parks and sports stadiums. The proposed ordinance would also ban the use of electronic cigarettes and vaporizers in all public places.
Paducah native Stacey Daniels, who suffers from cystic fibrosis, spoke to commissioners about how smoking and vaping has affected her life. "My lungs are not deteriorated due to bad habits or a bad lifestyle. They are the product of a terminal illness that slowly steals away lung capacity." Daniels said. She said both vapor and cigarette smoke causes her disease to flare up and she experiences fever and coughing.
Daniels said scarring from her flareups has caused her to lose lung function. She said she was recently denied a transplant because she tested positive for nicotine. Daniels said she does not use any tobacco at all, and her nicotine test was the result of secondhand smoke.
"I felt like I had just been handed my death sentence," she said.
Not everyone at the meeting was in support of the ban. Liz Lassiter is a store manager of the three Kicking Ash vape stores in Paducah. She said she agrees that certain precautions should be taken, however, "From a medical standpoint I can see where doctors have questions about vaping." Lassiter said. "Vaping is still a new thing and studies are still being done."
Lassiter said, "When it comes to vaping in general, I don't see what the big fuss is. I mean I see the big fuss but not the 'we have to come down on vaping.'"
The city adopted its smoking ban ordinance in 2006 that prohibits the smoking of tobacco products in buildings open to the public.
