Aldermen Considering Adding E-Cigs, Vape Pens to Smoking Ban Ordinance

By Alyssa Schnugg
News Editor
alyssa.schnugg@hottytoddy.com

Vaping may soon not be allowed inside public buildings or outside in any Oxford park if the Oxford Board of Aldermen approves a proposed ordinance amendment to the city’s Smoking Ban policy to include electronic cigarettes and pipes.

On Tuesday, the Oxford Board of Aldermen heard the first reading of a proposal by the Oxford Police Department to add verbiage to the existing Smoking Ban ordinance that makes it illegal to use an electronic cigarette in any areas where cigarettes and cigars are already banned.

If approved, the ordinance will define smoking as “inhaling, exhaling, burning or carrying any lighted cigar, cigarette, pipe, hookah, or other lighted tobacco product in any manner or in any form, including the use of any electronic smoking device.”

The definition of “electronic smoking devices” in the proposed change reads: “any electronic device, electronic circuit device, chemical or mechanical heating element device, battery-operated device or any other power source device that delivers nicotine, flavor or other substances for inhalation. This term shall include every variation and type of such devices whether they are manufactured, distributed, marketed or sold as an electronic cigarette, an electronic cigar, an electronic cigarillo, an electronic pipe, an electronic hookah or any other product name or descriptor.”

A public hearing on the amendment will be held at 5 p.m. April 16 at City Hall. The board could elect to vote immediately following the second reading and public hearing or vote on the ordinance change after a third reading on May 7.

If the ordinance is amended, it will prohibit using electronic smoking devices in the same areas and locations as cigarettes that includes all indoor public areas, including local bars and restaurants, within the entrances to city-owned buildings, school grounds, outdoor sporting arenas and city-owned parks.

View the city’s Smoking Ban Ordinance here (Article IV) and the proposed amendment here.