House committee targets e-cigarettes

SALT LAKE CITY-- A Utah House committee decided on Tuesday to ban electronic cigarettes and most other smokeless nicotine products.

Rep. Paul Ray, R-Clinton, introduced a newly modified bill in the committee that banned in Utah both candy-like products with nicotine and e-cigarettes, a nicotine product that is inhaled with vapor.

The new decision by the house committee was to add e-cigarettes to the ban list but exempt snuff.

Supporters of the mechanical cigarette said they were losing a way to stop smoking tobacco.

"I (had) finally found a way to quit," said an exasperated Brian Livingston, of West Point, who testified before the committee.

Ray's bill is in direct conflict with legislation that awaits a vote on the house floor.

The bill from Rep. Ronda Menlove, R-Garland, bans the sale of e-cigarettes to minors but says nothing about snuffing them out of existence.

Menlove said it was likely both bills would move forward and a resolution between the two would come late in the session.

The Ray proposal now moves to the full House for a vote.