Vaping Ban Upheld By Federal Court

The Fix discusses the Department of Transportation e-cigarette ban with Sam Kazman.

A federal court has stamped out a challenge to the Department of Transportation’s ban on e-cigarettes on commercial flights. E-cigarettes were added to the list of banned tobacco products last year in order to protect passengers from a vaper’s secondhand mists on all commercial U.S. flights as well as international flights to and from the U.S.

E-cigarettes or similar vaping devices use electric heating elements to vaporize a specialized liquid, typically containing nicotine, to allow users to experience the act of smoking without all the downsides that come with inhaling smoke. This would, in theory, allow a person with nicotine cravings to reduce the harm they commit to themselves and others with carcinogenic smoke.

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The DoT ban was challenged by the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the Consumer Advocates for Smoke-Free Alternatives and an e-cigarette user. They are mulling over whether to appeal the ruling.

“Today’s court ruling creates a dangerous new rule for interpreting the law,” said Sam Kazman, general counsel for the Competitive Enterprise Institute. “It allows the commonly-understood language of Congress’s 30-year-old no-smoking statute to be stretched in a ban on e-cigarettes—even though e-cigarettes involve no combustion and produce no smoke.”

Kazman’s team argues that “any risks to airline passengers are totally undemonstrated.”

Read the full artile at The Fix.