Prohibition of Electronic Smoking Device Use in Smoke-Free Places
Purpose
Three Rivers Regional Library is committed to providing a safe, orderly, and productive environment for its employees and the public who enter the premises.
Policy
It is the policy of Three Rivers Regional Library that the use of electronic smoking devices (also known as electronic cigarettes or “ecigarettes”) is prohibited in any place where smoking of tobacco products is prohibited by law.
This directive applies to all employees, visitors, volunteers, students, contract workers, delivery personnel, etc., who enter the work setting or environment which includes all facilities and properties of Three Rivers Regional Library.
Rationale
The unrestricted use of electronic smoking devices is potentially hazardous to health and is disruptive to an orderly, productive environment. The use of unregulated electronic smoking devices in existing smoke-free locations threatens to undermine compliance with smoking regulations, confuses the public, and reverses the progress that has been made in establishing a social norm that smoking is not permitted in public places and places of employment.
By prohibiting the use of electronic smoking devices in places where smoking is prohibited, Three Rivers Regional Library protects its employees and visitors from involuntary exposure to the secondhand byproducts of electronic smoking devices such as “e-vapor” and reduces the likelihood that the public will associate the use of electronic smoking devices at the Three Rivers Regional Library with healthful behavior, reduce the likelihood of workplace disturbances, and enhance employee productivity.
Definitions
Electronic smoking device: Any electronic product that can be used to simulate smoking in the delivery of nicotine or other substances to the person inhaling from the device, including but not limited to an electronic cigarette, electronic cigar, electronic cigarillo, or electronic pipe, and any cartridge or other component of the device or related product.
Unregulated high-tech smoking devices, commonly referred to as electronic cigarettes, or “ecigarettes,” closely resemble and purposefully mimic the act of smoking by having users inhale vaporized liquid nicotine created by heat through an electronic ignition system. After testing a number of e-cigarettes from two leading manufacturers, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) determined that various samples tested contained not only nicotine but also detectable levels of known carcinogens and toxic chemicals, including tobacco-specific nitrosamines and diethylene glycol, a toxic chemical used in antifreeze. The FDA’s testing also suggested that “quality control processes used to manufacture these products are inconsistent or nonexistent.” ([n.a.], "Summary of results: laboratory analysis of electronic cigarettes conducted by FDA," Food and Drug Administration (FDA), July 22, 2009; http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/PublicHealthFocus/ucm173146.htm Accessed on: October 22, 2009.)
According to a more recent study, electronic cigarette emissions are made up of a high concentration of ultrafine particles, and the particle concentration is higher than in conventional tobacco cigarette smoke. (Fuoco, F.C.; Buonanno, G.; Stabile, L.; Vigo, P., "Influential parameters on particle concentration and size distribution in the mainstream of e cigarettes," Environmental Pollution 184: 523-529, January 2014.) Electronic cigarettes produce an aerosol or vapor of undetermined and potentially harmful substances, which may appear similar to the smoke emitted by traditional tobacco products. Their use in workplaces and public places where smoking of traditional tobacco products is prohibited creates concern and confusion and leads to difficulties in enforcing the smoking prohibitions.
Therefore, The Three Rivers Regional Library prohibits the use of electronic cigarettes on Library property.
Definition: ―E-cigarette means any electronic oral device, such as one composed of a heating element, battery, and/or electronic circuit, which provides a vapor of nicotine or any other substances, and the use or inhalation of which simulates smoking. The term shall include any such device, whether manufactured, distributed, marketed, or sold as an e-cigarette, e-cigar, e- pipe, or under any other product name or descriptor.
APPROVED BY THE LIBRARY BOARD ON DECEMBER 11, 2014