Michael Bloomberg held a marathon bill signing session Monday, enacting his final 22 pieces of legislation as mayor, including an indoor ban on e-cigarettes.
The new law includes electronic cigarettes in the city’s Smoke-Free Air Act and will prohibit their use in restaurants, offices, parks, beaches and other public spaces.
“E-cigarettes heat up a chemical solution and emit vapors to provide its user with nicotine, the same highly addictive ingredient found in combustible cigarettes. The next generation of potential smokers could gravitate to getting their nicotine fix from these products,” Bloomberg said.
A protestor who was at the bill signing lit up a cigarette and read a statement against the smoking ban, according to published reports.
Additional legislation Bloomberg signed Monday included a bill that could lead to the ban of plastic foam containers following a year-long study to determine if the material can be recycled, and the creation of a database to track expenditures related to Sandy.
“EPS [Expanded Polystyrene] foam is a major source of litter, where it often breaks up into small pieces, littering our streets, waterways, catch basins, and neighborhood sidewalks. EPS foam also costs the city money. The city must pay $1.8 million annually to have it landfilled where it can sit for more than five hundred years,” Bloomberg said.
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