Edina Bans E-Cigarette 'Vapor Lounges,' Plans Further Study

Edina has placed a moratorium on electronic cigarette "vapor lounges" and plans to study the devices further to determine whether to ban them from all public parks and buildings.

The city council adopted the moratorium at its Dec. 17 meeting.

"The council would like to know more about e-cigarettes before making a definite decision," said Jeff Brown, the city's community health administrator. "Their intent is to keep the status quo until they have enough information to make a change or something happens at another level of government."

E-cigarettes vaporize liquids, allowing smokers to get their nicotine fix by inhaling water vapor. They’re a controversial innovation, with some arguing that they’re a relatively innocuous aid to quitting nicotine. Others, such as council member Josh Sprague, counter that they “lead to cross usage” with cigarettes and spread toxic secondhand vapors. Introduced in the early 2000s, the health effects of e-cigarettes are still being debated.

“E-cigarette use is already up in high schoolers,” Sprague said at a meeting earlier this month. “Smoking’s out, e-cigarettes are in, so how we mirror that behavior in our public spaces is important.”

The Edina School Board recently added “e-cigarettes” to its list of tobacco products banned on school district property and city staff have already been asked not to use the devices at work.