House passes ban on using e-cigarettes, hookahs in public

Publication Date: 2012-02-23

• Publication:KSL-TV

House passes ban on using e-cigarettes, hookas in public

The Utah House approved a proposal Tuesday to ban the smoking of hookah pipes and e-cigarettes in public places, after opponents held a hookah pipe smoking demonstration on the Capitol steps then held signs in the gallery urging the bill's defeat.

The bill, HB245, would add those devices to Utah Indoor Clean Air Act's ban on smoking in public places.HB245 would allow existing hookah bars to operate as they do now until at least 2017. However, that means the businesses would have to return to Capitol Hill in five years to lobby for an extension...