Allow local governments to regulate e-cigarettes

Publication Date: 2015-04-21

• Author:Ernst-Ulrich Franzen for the Journal Sentinel Editorial Board
• Publication:Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

...In another effort to impose big brother's (state government's) will on local governments, state legislators are considering a bill that would bar local authorities from including e-cigarettes in their smoke-free air ordinances. The bill - introduced by Sen. Stephen Nass (R-Whitewater) - bans e-cigarettes from day care centers and schools and allows local governments to ban them from government buildings as well,

That's all good, but the bill then goes on to bar local authorities from imposing any tighter restrictions than the state law.

That's "premature and potentially dangerous" says a news release from the American Cancer Society, the American Heart and Stroke Association and the American Lung Association...

Given all that, why bar local governments from acting on their concerns about the effects of smoking e-cigarettes? Beyond that, why interfere at all with local government authority to regulate e-smoking?...