The policy, effective immediately, prohibits the use of electronic smoking devices in all areas where tobacco smoking is banned in the country’s 408 national parks, according to the Washington Times.
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Park service employees were alerted to the ban on vaping in a memo.
It’s worth noting that e-cigarettes don’t have the same combustion potential as traditional ones.
The city of Roswell is set to vote on a similar ordinance Wednesday night.
You can’t vape at National Parks any longer.
That means that if a park superintendent decided to put the kibosh on outdoor smoking to prevent forest fires, that would mean e-cigarettes would be banned as well.
Wednesday night, there will be a second reading of the proposal.
[READ: House Leaders Rush to Defend E-Cigarettes From Possible FDA Bans]. “This behavior is shameful and any enforcement of the ban will constitute a great misuse of government resources”.
There are no reported cases of an electronic cigarette contributing to an outdoor fire, though the report cited the possibility of the devices’ powerful batteries to start a fire.
Health officials have previously warned the public that the health effects of long-term e-cigarette use are now unknown.
Vapor exhaled from electronic cigarettes and other electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) contains nicotine at a level roughly one-tenth of that found in second-hand smoke. There are still labeled, designated smoking areas where both e-cigs and cigarettes can be smoked.
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Jenny Anzelmo-Sarles, a spokesperson for NPS in the National Capital Region, clarifies that smoking tobacco cigarettes is now prohibited “in all National Park Service and concession operated facilities, generally within 25 feet of a building entrance, and all government vehicles”.
