Friday, December 20, 2013

Styrofoam & e-cigs banned by Council

From the NY Times:

In its last scheduled legislative session of the year, the New York City Council passed major health and environmental regulations on Thursday, establishing a ban on plastic-foam food service containers, extending the city’s ban on public smoking to cover e-cigarettes and requiring composting at large restaurants.

The plastic-foam measure was a final victory of sorts for Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, though it came with a caveat. In his State of the City address this year, Mr. Bloomberg said the plastic-foam containers were virtually impossible to recycle, and environmentalists have long complained that the foam cups, trays and containers, stained by beverages, grease and food, were needlessly clogging landfills.

In response to concerns that small businesses would be hurt by switching to costlier alternatives like paper and plastic, the bill allows small establishments and nonprofit organizations to apply for a waiver from the ban.

E-cigarettes, which use a battery to vaporize a nicotine solution, have grown in popularity based on a perception that they are a safer alternative to regular cigarettes, but the health implications remain in question. The bill limiting their use, pushed by two departing council members, James F. Gennaro of Queens and Speaker Christine C. Quinn of Manhattan, bans e-cigarettes wherever smoking is now prohibited, including restaurants, bars, parks and office buildings. The Bloomberg administration supported the measure.

Proponents cited the potential, if not yet fully known, health effects of e-cigarettes and their secondhand vapor, and said e-cigarettes confused bartenders and others who had to enforce the existing ban.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Jesus, Joseph and Mary...with all the real crap the city should be concerned with..e-cigs take precedence?

Will the city council next seek to ban the wearing of jockey shorts because those whitey-tighties constrict sperm production?

We're getting a little personal choice issue here folks.

I'll bet it's big tobacco lobby that's against e-cigarettes. Lorillard rules!

Anonymous said...

Aw gee, Steinway Street just won't be the same without the discarded styrofoam containers with the remnants of some exotic culinary delight from some local street vendor all over the curb and sidewalk. It just won't seem so VIBRANT! and DIVERSE! without those wonderful little containers dumped everywhere, especially on Saturday and Sunday mornings.

Anonymous said...

So they will use paper/cardboard cups instead.Steinway will never notice the difference.

Anonymous said...

When are they going to ban illegal aliens?

Anonymous said...

e-cigs are clearly drug delivery systems and should be regulated as such. The End.

Anonymous said...

So they will use paper/cardboard cups instead.Steinway will never notice the difference.
-------------------------------
I stand corrected.

Helen said...


The best thing about this story is that Quinn and Gennaro were described as outgoing City Council members. Good riddance to these two who also voted to extend term limits to allow Bloomberg's third run for mayor.

Can't see how any bartender would "confuse" an e-cig for a genuine one, particularly one that has a blue light at the tip.

Anonymous said...

So you think that E-sigs...drug delivery systems?

FU!

We've got REAL "drug delivery system" drug dealers in Jamaica. What's NYC doing about them?

ZILCH!

Sounds like you've been puffing weed yourself "A" hole.

Get some perspective.