Editor’s note: This article is by Amy Ash Nixon of The Caledonian Record, in which it was first published Nov. 19, 2013.
LYNDONVILLE — The area’s first electronic cigarette retailer is hoping to open in a vacant building at 770 Broad St. Lyndonville under the name NEK Vapor.
A public hearing is set before the Lyndon Development Review Board for 7 p.m. on Dec. 5, said Town Zoning Administrator Justin Smith on Monday. He said the proposed business would be in the former New England Video location in the village. According to the public notice for the Dec. 5 hearing on NEK Vapor the use requires site plan approval under the town’s zoning by-laws.
The store is proposed by owner Dennis Steele. Steele said Monday there is a store in Castleton, VT Vapor, that has been selling the product for several years and he will be purchasing the liquid used in the electronic cigarettes from them, so the liquid he offers will be made in Vermont.
“I just thought I’d give people an alternative to smoking tobacco cigarettes, I’m not trying to promote that it’s safer or anything because there are no studies, but it’s just an alternative to inhaling smoke and carcinogens, and the 4,000 chemicals that are in cigarettes, this is just an alternative,” said Steele.
Steele said, “It’s a water vapor that you exhale. There is no law that you can’t smoke these apparatus inside,” he said. “I have to take a tobacco class, the State has put these cigarettes in the category that is the same as cigarettes, so you can’t sell them to people that are under 18.”
Steele is awaiting his tobacco license, which will come from the Vermont Department of Liquor Control, and also will be before the town’s select board on Dec. 2, seeking approval to sell the electronic cigarettes.
“They have no carcinogens or carbon monoxide or whatever else is in cigarettes, this is just an alternative to that,” said Steele. “I’m starting out small and will be offering a line of different flavors people can try. It’s controlled and regulated just like the sale of cigarettes are.”
Steele said there are not any electronic cigarette stores in the Northeast Kingdom, and he said VT Vapor is one of the first in the country. ” One of the other good things about it is you can buy liquids with less nicotine all the way down to zero nicotine, so if you want to get off, you can keep going lower until finally you can be vaping without nicotine…I see it as a way people can get off of smoking completely by getting off of nicotine,” he said.
Though little is known about the effects of electronic cigarettes, they are being met with resistance.
Earlier this fall, Vermont’s Attorney General William H. Sorrell co-sponsored a bipartisan letter with Massachusetts Attorney Martha Coakley and Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, joined by 38 other Attorneys General, which called on the FDA to take all available measures to regulate ecigarettes as ‘tobacco products’ under the Tobacco Control Act.
In a September news release, the AGs effort noted, “E-cigarettes, an increasingly widespread product that is growing rapidly among both youth and adults, are battery operated products that heat liquid nicotine into a vapor that is inhaled by the user. “To protect our youth we need federal leadership regulating this product.”
The Vermont Department of Health has a fact sheet on electronic cigarettes on their website, saying that e-cigarettes are “a battery-powered device that heats a liquid solution to produce a vapor for inhalation.”
“Public health experts have expressed concern that e-cigarettes could increase nicotine addiction and tobacco use among youth,” the health department fact sheet notes. “No scientific evidence currently exists to support claims that e-cigarettes can be an effective cessation tool,” it continues. “The Vermont Department of Health does not support the use of e-cigarettes for quitting smoking.”
The fact sheet goes on, stating, “Health consequences of the use of e-cigarettes and the vapor that they give off are unknown. There is currently no scientific evidence establishing the safety of e-cigarettes.” “E-cigarettes come in many flavors, which may increase the appeal for youth,” the state fact sheet notes.
