There is a current debate going on at the Capitol building in Des Moines involving electronic cigarettes.

Republican State Representative Chip Baltimore heads the subcommittee on this issue and says their bill is proposing that minors can’t possess of use e-cigarettes and not allowing vendors to sell them to minors.

He states that e-cigarettes do contain nicotine, which is why they don’t want minors to use them, but they don’t contain any carcinogens and they produce water vapor and not smoke so adults can use them in areas that don’t allow smoking.

However, some of the push-back he’s been getting from lobbyists are from groups like the American Cancer Society who doesn’t even want them in stores at all.  Baltimore points out that they have research that shows that e-cigarettes can help reduce lung cancer in those who do smoke, which he is in support of.

“I am in support of these products to the extent that they are used as substitutes for cigarettes.  Absolutely, I think they are a much safer product, I think that they may help dramatically reduce lung cancer and that if someone is bound and determined to continue with nicotine addiction, then these are probably much more preferable than the tobacco products.”

He hopes his bill get to passed later this session.