The town of Corte Madera voted to ban e-cigarettes in public spaces and multi-family homes, joining the growing list of cities and counties in California and elsewhere to ban the device.

Members of the Town Council voted on April 15 to ban the e-cigarettes, with three of the five council members supporting the ban, one member dissenting, and one member absent.

The ban aims at regulating e-cigarettes in to curtail the effects that second hand smoke has in multi-family homes and in public spaces. The ban is also part of a nationwide push to ban the controversial devices, which have experienced a spike in popularity in recent years, jumping from an estimated 50,000 users in 2008 to 3.5 million in 2012, according to the Tobacco Vapor Electronic Cigarette Association.

“The purpose of [the ban] was to ensure the health and safety of residents,” said Carla Condon, vice-mayor of Corte Madera. “Many people have health issues from second hand smoke, and e-cigarettes have contributed to that problem. We wanted to be able to create an environment where people’s health is not being jeopardized by tobacco or nicotine products, including the electronic cigarette.”

However, not all of the council members agreed, with mayor Michael Lappert questioning the health effects of e-cigarettes.

“Is a person sitting in their own apartment, inhaling water vapor having an adverse physical effect on a neighbor who’s on another side of a wall?” Lappert said. “There’s a difference [between an e-cigarette and a cigarette or cigar]. One is a water vapor that dissipates quickly, very quickly. It has no particulates, no actual physical properties of smoke. It dissipates, and it’s gone.”

Currently, 13 states and 140 cities and counties regulate e-cigarettes according to the American Nonsmokers’ Rights Foundation. California has no statewide regulations pertaining to e-cigarettes, but 25 cities and counties have made ordinances regulating their usage, including the cities of Tiburon, Mill Valley, and Fairfax. Corte Madera’s ban makes them the twenty-sixth city or county in California to do so.

According to Lappert, that lack of uniformity in regulation poses a problem for enforcing the ban.

“When you make a rule, one of the things you have to consider is how you enforce that law,” Lappert said. “If you have this patchwork of regulations that are different from Corte Madera to Larkspur to Greenbrae—all areas that the Twin Cities Police patrol—it makes it very hard to enforce.”

Part of the reason for banning e-cigarettes in multi-family homes is because of third-hand smoke, where the residual particulates from tobacco stick to walls and ceilings and cause negative health effects long after the cigarette has been extinguished. Another prominent reason is the rise in popularity of e-cigarettes amongst teenagers.

“There has been a lot of effort to attract minors by advertising flavors and creating somewhat of a trend that appeals to young people, and the concern is that [e-cigarettes] may have other substances that can have negative results on a minor’s health,” Condon said.

Lappert also said that there is an increased usage in teens, but that it should be up to parents rather than the government to fix that.

“There’s no question about tobacco companies trying to sell to a new market, and selling to the younger people develops their future market. But it’s a free enterprise; they’re able to do that,” Lappert said. “At what point are we going to leave it up to the parents to teach their children that this behavior is not good for you and perhaps you should think about stopping it?”

However, Condon said that parents and other members of the community have seemed to support these new regulations.

“From everything that I’ve heard, this ban has generally been well accepted by the constituents. In fact, a lot of what came about with Corte Madera’s decisions was that there had been a lot of push to consider the ban, and it was in response to public input that we decided to pursue it,” Condon said.

Condon also said that the council felt it was important to enact the new regulations now, before the new multi-family dwellings on Rose Lane and the MacFarlane Group project are finished.

According to Condon, enforcement measures are being discussed for future.