We understand the impulse behind Michael Bloomberg’s health nannyism, even if we don’t always agree that a city ban is the best way to handle these issues.
Whether it’s combating obesity or the effects of second-hand smoke, the mayor’s initiatives all have a certain logic to them.
But even by Bloomberg standards, his latest move on smoking is bizarre: He’s extending his anti-tobacco campaign to target e-cigarettes.
Not only do e-cigarettes have no tobacco, their main purpose is to help smokers who want to kick their habit. But that’s not the way Bloomberg and his allies on the City Council see it.
According to a recently leaked draft of one of three tobacco-related bills in the council, “electronic cigarette marketing is often designed to deter smokers from quitting and to attract youth.” The bill consequently also proposes banning stores from displaying ads for traditional cigarettes.
In an attempt to back up their point, they toss in a Florida study that found 8.4% of high-school students tried an e-cig in 2012, a 40% increase.
“Restricting the display of electronic cigarettes will reduce electronic cigarette use among youth and prevent the emergence of a new generation that is addicted to nicotine,” the bill says.
Whatever you think of Bloomberg’s efforts on everything from salt to transfats, in this case there’s little scientific research to support the notion that e-cigs lead to traditional cigarettes. If anything, much has been made of the converse — e-cigs helping smokers either quit altogether or cut back significantly.
That has led Dr. Michael Siegel, a professor of Community Health Sciences at Boston University’s School of Public Health, to denounce the Bloomberg initiative as a “public-health disaster.” Siegel told Gothamist that e-cigarettes are a product “that’s literally saving lives” by giving smokers a real alternative.
What it seems to come down to is that the mayor simply doesn’t like the way e-cigs look and believes they can be used to glamorize a lifestyle counter to the image he wants for his New York.
To prevent that, he’ll even get the law to classify a non-tobacco product — indeed, an anti-tobacco product — as tobacco.
In short, what we’re seeing once again is the defining instinct of 21st century American liberalism: the urge to boss everyone else around.