We head for Montgomery in Maryland today to discover the views of yet more politicianswho haven’t quite done their homework on e-cigarettes. They love launching bills to placerestrictions on the product but don’t bother to find out or even listen to the whole story aboutthem.For several months councilmember Nancy Floreen has been preparing a bill that will restrictthe use of e-cigarettes for minors, restrict their use in the same areas as for poisonoustobacco cigarettes, govern product placement in stores and require child-resistant packagingfor liquid nicotine. In other words they want to stick their nose in where it’s not wanted andtreat e-cigarettes just like the life-shortening tobacco cigarettes. Of course the more they dothat, the easier to then tax them in the future.The bill doesn’t go to a public hearing until January 22. It sees Montgomery attempting totake action before the FDA finally publish their regulations on e-cigarettes. That’s a longwait the way the FDA are going and I still haven’t received any emails from them about e-cigarettesSo what pearls of wisdom has Floreen to tell us? Well she starts off by saying: “Somethingto remember about electronic cigarettes is that basically they are a nicotine delivery device.There’s no question about that.” Well sorry to disappoint you but actually there is a questionabout that. There are e-cigarettes that don’t actually contain any nicotine at all.Then Floreen decides to go down the flavor route declaring that “The real issue of course isthe marketing of these devices to young people with different flavors, different ways toentrance a whole generation of smokers into the stream of addiction and concern.”Obviously this politician hasn’t read the blogs that we write for you every week and has donelittle research at all really. But what’s really disgraceful is the fact that he stands by thisstatement despite the fact that the council heard compelling evidence that shows the e-cigarette industry is not carrying out this policy.The council heard from Kevin Scrimgeour who owns Wheaton Vapor and disappointed thecouncil members when he said his target customer is just someone who needs to move fromsmoking tobacco to the lower nicotine levels in e-cigarettes. In fact many of his customerswere older people wanting to get away from smoking tobacco. “(They are) men and womenwho have smoked a pack or two packs a day and they’ve gotten the scare... Something’shappened and they show up at my booth,”Scrimgeour further disappointed the council by stating that in the e-cigarette industry it’s badpractice to appeal to minors. He added that the different flavors for the nicotine often appealto those already smoking hookah, not children who want to try out the flavors. ““We don’twelcome people under 18. We don’t want them in the store. We thank them very much butwe card people,” he said.It beggars belief doesn’t it? A respectable businessman, who is trying to earn moneythrough his e-cigarette business, tells the truth and yet the council still have members goingon about the industry trying to tempt minors to try their product. Can’t politicians ever listento evidence like this and admit they are wrong?Other members of the council are also busy scaremongering about e-cigarettes.Councilmember Craig Rice is on record as saying he’s not willing to take a chance on afamily with a young child sitting next to someone in a restaurant who is vaping. Of course ifwe’re to believe Floreen it may well be the young child who’s vaping because they’reattracted by the flavors.For Rice this legislation is all about their “responsibility to protect the public as well.” Headded that if more information proves that vaping is safe then the county could repeal therestrictions. It’s worth noting that while Rice has been busy scaremongering he hasn’tactually provided any evidence that people are at risk from second-hand vapor yet will goahead with the legislation.The comments made by Rice were rightly criticized by Bruce Bereano who is a lobbyist forthe tobacco industry. He felt that the comments were “grossly unfair and grosslyirresponsible.”Also unhappy is Thomas Kiklas, co-founder of the Tobacco Vapor Electronic CigaretteAssociation (TVECA). He’s been quick to remind Montgomery council that there have beenplenty of studies that show e-cigarettes are safe and can be seen on their website.Kiklas really talks sense when he says: “In time we feel people will better understand thetechnology and not be fearful of it.” Yes, we’re back to the fear of the unknown situation. It’scommon for every new piece of technology and sooner or later people will get used to e-cigarettes and critics will have a lot of humble pie (or rice?) to eat.