Smoke signals

Public smoking bans -- very common now, even in live and let live Nevada -- are usually justified on health grounds.

Children mustn't be subjected to the dangers of second-hand smoke, the argument goes, and adults who venture into public shouldn't have to put up with the stench and pollution associated with cigarette smoke. In addition, employees of places where patrons typically smoke -- bars, casinos, etc. -- deserve protection because many of them may have no real choice in their place of employment, the anti-tobacco crowd maintains.

But ...

What if somebody developed a smokeless cigarette? That would solve the problem, wouldn't it? No smelly, cough-inducing, eye-stinging cigarette smoke to bat away. No second-hand smoke danger to others. No stink clinging to clothes.

Well ...

"Electronic cigarettes are opening a new front in the tobacco war," USA Today reported Monday, "as state and local lawmakers try to restrict the product, which may allow users to circumvent smoking bans."

Since the product creates no smoke, you might as well say that chewing gum is "merely a way to circumvent smoking bans."

While the product isn't popular with all smokers -- many find it doesn't satisfy their nicotine cravings -- more than half million Americans use the e-cigarettes. Some say it helps wean them off of actual cigarettes.

Nevertheless, the usual suspects are up in arms.

"It's a new frontier," attorney John Banzhaf told USA Today. "We don't know what the dangers are." Mr. Banzhaf, it should be noted, has been in the news recently advocating lawsuits against fast-food restaurants.

Along the same lines, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who's apparently never met an industry he wouldn't try to shake down, said he's "actively investigating" the companies that make e-cigarettes.

Many critics of the new product argue that e-cigarettes are just another means by which the evil tobacco companies can hook kids on cigarettes. OK. But it's curious, then, how the do-gooders seek to go far beyond simply restricting sales and access to minors. Instead, states such as California and Oregon have attempted to ban the product outright.

And here we believed all those anti-smoking activists when they insisted that their primary concern wasn't to stop adult smokers from lighting up, but to protect nonsmokers from the dangers of second-hand smoke. Based on the reaction to the e-cigarette, it is now clear that the exact opposite was true.