By Adrian Omar Ramirez.
When San Marcos became one of a growing number of Central Texas cities to pass a smoking ordinance, Ahh Vapors owners Ray Santorelli and Sharon Teal hoped that, like many others, the ban would not extend over electronic cigarettes. However, with the ban now including electronics, Santorelli and Teal felt the ban may have been enacted without the proper information.
Ahh Vapors in San Marcos specializes in selling e-cigarettes and vaporizers, providing a number of nicotine levels and flavors for smokers who want to wean down from cigarettes.
Santorelli and Teal, who each started smoking from vaporizers in the winter, opened Ahh Vapors together in June. For Santorelli, the purported health benefits of a vaporizer were a major draw.
“It’s a lot healthier. All you’re getting is flavor and nicotine,” he said. “It doesn’t have all the tar and carcinogens. It’s unbelievable how many [carcinogens] are in a cigarette.”
The San Marcos City Council unanimously passed the no smoking ordinance on Sept. 23 on first reading, with council member Jude Prather absent from the vote. During the second reading on Oct. 2, electronic cigarettes were included in the ordinance, which passed 6-1, with council member Shane Scott voting against it.
The San Marcos ordinance, effective June 1, 2014, will ban smoking in bars, restaurants, park space and on grounds operated by the city.
Smoking bans have been passed in nearby cities, including Austin, New Braunfels, and San Antonio. Overall, 41 cities in Texas passed smoking bans, with more limited ordinances in 35 other cities.
In Austin, the city’s health department said the ban, enacted eight years ago, does not include e-cigarettes or vapes.
Teal said the move to include e-cigarettes in the ban was “an uneducated assumption.”
“I just don’t think they did their research before making that decision,” she said.
Studies recently released by the Consumer Advocates for Smoke Free Alternatives Association show e-cigarettes to be far less harmful than cigarettes, according to Teal.
Retailers selling smoking products, such as humidors, hookah lounges, and electronic cigarette stores, will be still be permitted to offer indoor smoking under the ban.
“We’re still going to be here to help customers who want to quit,” Teal said. “As long as we can help them, we’re going to do it.”
Ray Ozuna, manager at Vape Shop, also in San Marcos, said he noticed an immediate growth in vaporizer use after Texas State University began to prohibit smoking in Fall 2011.
Ozuna, who has been smoking a vaporizer since February, said before his switch he could typically smoke two packs of cigarettes every three days. He said he hopes the ban would lead consumers in a more positive direction.
“What I hope is that people realize that electronic cigarettes are better for you [than regular cigarettes],” Ozuna said.
Like Teal, Ozuna agreed that a ban on electronic cigarettes comes out of a shortage of information.
“It’s one of those things that happened because there wasn’t enough education,” Ozuna said. “If people knew more about electronic cigarettes and the differences between cigarettes and e-cigarettes, I don’t think there’d be so much of a problem.”
