City Council gives initial approval to vaping restrictions

Electronic smoking devices and vaping will be treated as cigarettes and smoking under a proposal that received initial approval during Tuesday night’s meeting of the Columbus City Council.

Kylee Jones, tobacco awareness coordinator with Healthy Communities at Columbus Regional Health made a presentation to Columbus City Council in June, asking for the amendment. She says that use of e-cigarettes is skyrocketing among the youth in our community and the devices are possibly as harmful to public health as actual cigarettes.

Jones was joined by other supporters of the measure, including Dr. Thomas Sonderman, CRH vice president and chief medical officer. He says that such an ordinance would be beneficial to all workers in the city.

The Bartholomew Consolidated School Corporation also supports the change. Superintendent Dr. Jim Roberts says that youths of today have a lot oh hazards to look out for.

Council approved the measure on a unanimous vote. It will need to pass a second reading, set for Aug. 20, before it becomes codified.