The Board of Trustees of the Los Angeles Community College District has amended its nonsmoking policy to include “comparable, personal, vaporgenerating devices,” better known as electronic cigarettes.
Their use, as is the case with any tobacco, plant or processed substance, will be limited to a maximum of four locations on the campuses of all nine LACCD colleges.
“The use of e-cigarettes is a growing epidemic among young people,” Board Vice President and the author of the policy change Scott Svonkin said. “Their use has created a public health crisis and needed to be addressed. This action will limit the exposure of the students, faculty and staff on our campuses to these cigarettes. No one should be forced to breathe the vapor e-cigarettes emit. We are proud to lead the effort to protect those we serve.”
The move follows a vote by the Los Angeles City Council to ban the use of e-cigarettes in restaurants, bars, nightclubs and other public spaces. That measure is awaiting the approval of L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti who has indicated he will sign it.
Prior to the vote, Los Angeles County Department of Public Health director Jonathan Fielding told the council, “We don’t want to risk e-cigarettes undermining a half century of successful tobacco control.”
The Los Angeles Community College District, the nation’s largest community college district, serves one-quarter million students a year in more than 36 cities in Los Angeles County at its nine colleges. The District covers almost 900-square-miles and has educated and trained the region’s diverse workforce since 1969.